Tackling deepfakes ‘has turned into an arms race’ – Life Changer

Tackling deepfakes ‘has turned into an arms race’

[ad_1]

  • By Jane Wakefield
  • Technology reporter

Image source, Louise Bruder

Image caption,

Louise Bruder says that while AI can be used to fight AI-created deepfakes, human checkers will always still be needed

Louise Bruder never forgets a face. Which is not only a handy skill at parties, but it has helped her carve out a career.

She has the fabulous job title of super-recogniser, and her work at UK digital ID firm Yoti involves comparing the photos on an identity document with an uploaded selfie, to determine if it is the same person.

But Yoti, in common with other ID firms, faces a new threat – spotting so-called deepfakes. These are fake images created using AI-powered software.

Louise tells me that she hasn’t yet been asked to assess deepfakes as part of her day job, but the firm is well aware of the threat. And so, it is actively working on technology that will help spot them.

Putting her skills to the test with the BBC’s own Deepfake quiz, she scored seven out of eight. “There’s a deadness in people’s eyes that really means they don’t look real,” says Louise.

Ben Colman is the boss of Reality Defender, a US firm that aims to provide technology to spot deepfakes, and he thinks Louise may struggle soon to tell real from fake.

Image caption,

Ben Colman warns that deepfake technology is getting ever more sophisticated

“I’d say that in the last nine months it’s become next to impossible for even the best experts to tell real versus AI generated. We need a software solution to do this,” he says.

Mr Colman differentiates between really sophisticated deepfakes, which may be deployed by a nation state to create disinformation, and what he calls “cheapfakes”, whereby criminals use off-the-shelf AI software.

Worryingly, even the cheap fakes “are still good enough to fool people, particularly within images and audio,” he says. Video, though “is still a little more challenging, and requires a lot more computation”.

The solution his firm offers can scan and flag AI representation in an image, video or audio. Clients include the Taiwanese government, Nato, media organisations and large banks.

While it is video or image deepfakes that more often get the headlines, audio-only scams are also growing. For example criminals sending voice recordings using a person’s voice to say things like “Mum, I’ve lost my phone, please pay money to this account now”.

Collecting voice clips from someone’s account social media or YouTube is an easy job, and just a few seconds of audio is enough to clone the voice and use it to create sentences the person never said.

Some off the shelf software even allows users to “dial up” stress levels in a voice, a technique that has been used to fool parents in real cases where parents believed their child had been kidnapped.

Siwei Lyu is a professor at the University of Buffalo in the US who has studied deepfakes for many years, with the ultimate goal of developing algorithms to help automatically identify and expose them.

The algorithms are trained to spot tiny differences – eyes that might not be quite looking in the right direction or, in the case of an artificially created voice, a lack of evidence of breath.

Prof Lyu thinks there needs to be a degree of urgency to solving the problem, warning that video conferencing may be the next target for criminals.

“Not far in the future you could be plugged into a Zoom call, and you think you are talking to me, but it might be a virtual version of me. Somebody might use my image and create that as a deepfake presence in the zoom call.”

Deepfakes also have the potential to cause widespread societal disruption. Last year, a fake image of an explosion near the Pentagon went viral on social media, as did fake pictures of Donald Trump in handcuffs.

And in January, the New Hampshire Department of Justice was forced to release a statement saying that a recorded audio of Joe Biden telling residents not to vote in the state primary election was a deepfake.

Sigurdur Arnason runs a music creation platform in Iceland. Before Christmas he was asked by the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service to create a video music skit using a deepfake of a beloved dead Icelandic comedian called Hemmi Gunn for a show that aired on New Year’s Eve.

“We thought it would be a fun project,” he says. “We asked permission from the comedian’s family and we created our own in-house AI models.”

The skit did more than amuse, though.

“It sent shockwaves through the whole country,” says Mr Arnason. “All of the radio, online news publications and TV were all talking about it. Some family members were not happy because it was so real. Politicians started talking about AI regulation.”

Image caption,

The creation of a deepfake version of Icelandic comedian Hemmi Gunn (centre) created a storm in his country

It is important that politicians and the general public have such conversations and debates, thinks Christopher Doss, a researcher at think tank Rand Corporation.

He recently conducted a study into deepfakes which revealed that the more humans are exposed to deepfakes, the less likely they are to correctly identify them.

And he worries that using AI tools to fight the threat of AI creations could be a flawed approach.

“It’s just going to set up a kind of arms race between those who are trying to detect it, and those who are trying to evade detection,” he says. “The algorithm will figure out some artefact in the current deepfake landscape, and then the creators will shore up their weaknesses and improve their methods a little bit.”

For him, grappling with the problem properly will involve training people to be more critical about the content they are consuming, including viewing everything with “a healthy scepticism”, and double-checking sources.

That could mean teaching children about how to spot deepfakes from an early age. “The biggest challenge, and the one I don’t have a solution for, is how to teach the general adult population,” he says.

Image source, Christopher Doss

Image caption,

Christopher Doss says members of the public need to become more aware of deepfakes

Mr Colman, from Reality Defender, thinks the onus should be on companies to build solutions for spotting deepfakes, not consumers. “My mother is not responsible for identifying anti-virus issues,” he points out. And he doesn’t think she should be responsible for spotting deepfakes either.

“Social media and online sharing platforms are taking the approach that if we’re not required to do it, we will do the bare minimum, and pass the buck on to consumers and let them flag things,” he says. “The problem with that is it’s like putting the toothpaste back in the tube.

“People only flag things when they’ve been seen a million times and it’s already too late.”

Back at Yoti, Louise Bruder says that no matter how good AI gets at fighting deepfakes, there will always be a need for human checkers like herself. “Providing a human check is a requirement for many businesses… and we don’t expect that to change as it gives businesses extra confidence.”

[ad_2]

Source link

Loading

53 thoughts on “Tackling deepfakes ‘has turned into an arms race’

  1. Hello there, You’ve done a fantastic job. I will definitely digg it and personally recommend to my friends.
    I am sure they will be benefited from this
    web site.

  2. Hey there would you mind letting me know which webhost you’re utilizing?

    I’ve loaded your blog in 3 different internet browsers and I must say this blog
    loads a lot faster then most. Can you recommend a good hosting provider at a reasonable price?

    Thanks, I appreciate it!

  3. Hey there! I know this is somewhat off topic but
    I was wondering if you knew where I could locate a captcha
    plugin for my comment form? I’m using the same blog
    platform as yours and I’m having difficulty finding one? Thanks a lot!

  4. Hmm is anyone else encountering problems with the images on this blog loading?
    I’m trying to determine if its a problem on my
    end or if it’s the blog. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

  5. Pretty great post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wished to say that I’ve truly loved
    surfing around your blog posts. In any case I’ll be subscribing on your rss feed and I’m hoping you write once more soon!

  6. Wow that was strange. I just wrote an extremely long comment but after I
    clicked submit my comment didn’t show up. Grrrr… well
    I’m not writing all that over again. Anyways,
    just wanted to say fantastic blog!

  7. I needed to thank you for this good read!! I absolutely loved
    every little bit of it. I have got you saved
    as a favorite to check out new stuff you post…

  8. I believe everything wrote made a bunch of sense. However, think about this, suppose you added a little content?
    I mean, I don’t want to tell you how to run your blog,
    but suppose you added something to possibly get a person’s
    attention? I mean Tackling deepfakes ‘has turned into an arms race’ – Life Changer is kinda vanilla.
    You ought to look at Yahoo’s home page and watch how they create news titles to get people
    interested. You might try adding a video or a related picture
    or two to get people excited about everything’ve written. Just my opinion, it
    would bring your website a little bit more interesting.

  9. Its like you read my mind! You appear to
    know a lot about this, like you wrote the book in it or something.

    I think that you could do with a few pics to drive the message home a little bit, but other than that, this is magnificent
    blog. An excellent read. I will certainly be back.

  10. Hey! I just wanted to ask if you ever have any trouble with hackers?
    My last blog (wordpress) was hacked and I ended up losing a few months of hard work
    due to no data backup. Do you have any solutions to prevent hackers?

  11. I’m really loving the theme/design of your weblog.

    Do you ever run into any browser compatibility problems?
    A couple of my blog readers have complained about my
    site not operating correctly in Explorer but looks great
    in Chrome. Do you have any advice to help fix this problem?

  12. Hey There. I found your blog using msn. This is an extremely
    well written article. I will be sure to bookmark it and return to read more of your useful information. Thanks
    for the post. I’ll certainly return.

  13. What’s up to every body, it’s my first pay a visit of this blog; this weblog contains remarkable and truly fine information in support of readers.

  14. Very good site you have here but I was curious about if you knew of any message boards
    that cover the same topics discussed in this article?
    I’d really love to be a part of online community where I can get advice from
    other experienced people that share the same interest. If you have any recommendations,
    please let me know. Thank you!

  15. It’s in reality a great and helpful piece of information. I’m glad that you shared
    this useful info with us. Please stay us up to date like this.
    Thank you for sharing.

  16. Heya! I understand this is sort of off-topic but I had to ask.
    Does operating a well-established website like yours require a large amount
    of work? I am brand new to operating a blog however I
    do write in my diary everyday. I’d like to start a blog so I will be able to share my personal
    experience and feelings online. Please let me know
    if you have any kind of recommendations or tips for new aspiring blog owners.
    Thankyou!

  17. Hey there I am so grateful I found your weblog, I really
    found you by error, while I was looking on Askjeeve for something else, Regardless I am here
    now and would just like to say many thanks for a marvelous
    post and a all round interesting blog (I also love the theme/design), I don’t have
    time to look over it all at the moment but I have book-marked it
    and also added in your RSS feeds, so when I have time I will be back to
    read more, Please do keep up the awesome jo.

  18. Hello, i think that i noticed you visited my website thus i got here to return the choose?.I’m attempting
    to to find things to improve my website!I guess its
    adequate to use a few of your ideas!!

  19. Right now it appears like BlogEngine is the preferred blogging platform out
    there right now. (from what I’ve read) Is that what you are
    using on your blog?

  20. Thank you a bunch for sharing this with all folks you really recognize what you’re speaking about!
    Bookmarked. Kindly also discuss with my web site =).
    We will have a link change arrangement among us

  21. I have read several good stuff here. Definitely price bookmarking
    for revisiting. I wonder how so much attempt you set to make this sort of great informative website.

  22. My partner and I stumbled over here different web
    address and thought I might check things out.

    I like what I see so now i’m following you. Look forward to looking at your web page
    for a second time.

  23. Good post. I learn something new and challenging on blogs I stumbleupon every day.
    It’s always helpful to read through articles from other writers and use something
    from other sites.

  24. Thanks for another wonderful article. The place else
    could anybody get that type of info in such an ideal manner of writing?
    I have a presentation subsequent week, and I am at the look for such info.

  25. Hi this is kind of of off topic but I was wanting
    to know if blogs use WYSIWYG editors or if you have to manually code
    with HTML. I’m starting a blog soon but have no coding knowledge so I wanted to get
    advice from someone with experience. Any help would be
    greatly appreciated!

  26. After going over a number of the blog posts on your site, I truly like your way of blogging.

    I book marked it to my bookmark site list
    and will be checking back in the near future. Please visit my web site as well and
    let me know how you feel.

  27. Thanks , I have recently been looking for info about this topic for ages
    and yours is the best I’ve came upon till now. However, what about the conclusion? Are you
    positive in regards to the source?

  28. Hello my friend! I wish to say that this article is amazing, nice written and come with almost all
    important infos. I would like to peer more posts like this .

  29. My spouse and I stumbled over here by a different page and thought I may as well check things out.

    I like what I see so now i’m following you.
    Look forward to checking out your web page again.

  30. Thanks a lot for sharing this with all people you actually understand what
    you’re talking approximately! Bookmarked. Kindly also
    visit my site =). We may have a hyperlink trade arrangement between us

  31. Greetings from Ohio! I’m bored to tears at work so I decided
    to browse your blog on my iphone during lunch break. I enjoy the information you present
    here and can’t wait to take a look when I get home. I’m surprised at how quick your blog loaded on my cell phone
    .. I’m not even using WIFI, just 3G .. Anyways, great blog!

  32. It’s trᥙly a great and useful piece of info.
    I’m glad that youu shared this Õ½sеful information with us.
    Please stay us informed like this. Thanks foï½’ sÒ»aring.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *