Aug 30, 2019
Rotem Guttman and Zach Kurtz explain what deepfakes are, how they
work, and what kind of content it’s possible to create with current
techniques and technology.
The term “deepfake” refers to the use of machine learning to
produce content for essays or to modify photos and videos. When it
comes to photos and videos, the images are often so realistic that
viewers are not able to tell that they are fake. In this Cyber Talk
episode, Rotem Guttman and Zach Kurtz explain the kinds of machine
learning that people use to create deepfakes, how they work, and
what kind of content it’s possible to produce with current
technology. Rotem and Zach also cover the techniques people use to
create fraudulent content. Such techniques include using an actor
to film a video and then replacing the actor’s face with someone
else’s, as well as more advanced methods that can reproduce a
person’s body movements, voice, speech, and facial expressions to
make that person appear to say or do something that he or she did
not actually say or do. Finally, they discuss the current
limitations of these technologies and techniques, and they forecast
advances that might occur in the coming years.