Deepfake Technology: Biggest Cybersecurity Threat | Explained

are deep fakes rewriting history it's march 2021 a woman is arrested after sharing a manipulated video of her daughter's cheerleading rival vaping to get her kicked off the team after all who needs the threat of physical violence when it's possible to ruin someone's life using nothing but social media photos and a video welcome to cybernews.com my name is leah bolton join me today as we explore what a deep fake is and how deep fakes can completely distort the reality we live in make sure to like and subscribe if you like explain our videos like this one and don't forget to turn on notifications so you don't miss our weekly updates on everything related to technology and cyber security let's dive into this deep fakes explainer so what exactly is a deep fake simply put deep fakes are videos in which one person's face has been replaced by a computer-generated face that closely looks like another person the term was born in reddit when members of a group called deep fake used ai to put celebrities faces on porn actors take a look at this tom cruise video what's up tick-tock you guys cool if i play some sports looks close to reality yet it is a deep fake the programs that create deep fakes usually use two different ais at the same time the first one will scan images videos and audio of the victim and then generate a tampered image or video i'm going to show you some magic the second ai will compare them to real images and report any difference finally the first ai will receive this feedback and repeat the process several times until the second one can't tell a fake from the real thing anymore this technology has evolved to the point that it is accessible to nearly everyone and it is likely to get easier as computing power improves but the power of deep fakes is even more sinister than might originally seen channel 4 in england made a statement with the video known as queen elizabeth's alternative christmas speech in 2020 the video began with the queen addressing the british people as she does every year but then things got twisted when she began to make jokes about public crown scandals from that year only when she stood up to dance people started to realize it wasn't really her [Music] the video raised awareness as well as some eyebrows and opened up the conversation about the seriousness and even maybe the dangers of deep vape technology and that's just the beginning deep fakes can be used in warfare to raise or kill military morale in march 2022 meta removed a video posted on facebook of president zielinski encouraging to lay down their arms after realizing it was a deep fake the video went viral on the platform and was shown in tv 24's hacked website as breaking news the ukrainian president had to debunk the scam posting a video of himself on his own telegram channel supporting ukrainian troops not everything is merely misinformation though deep fakes can be used to target pretty much everyone from celebrities and political figures to regular citizens it was only two years ago that sensity an intelligence company specialized in visual threats recorded 85 000 deep fake videos these meant to destroy reputations these videos consisted of creating non-consensual pornography or even inciting fear and violence through incendiary speeches from targeted politicians these incidents are getting worse and involve digital abuse such as harassment blackmail and public shaming of course the ability of putting someone's face or voice into another person presents a huge opportunity to a bunch of unscrupulous people in 2019 the wall street journal reported that the ceo of a uk-based company believed he was on the phone with his boss when he instantly transferred 220 000 euros following his orders only to find out he was actually speaking to scammers who imitated his employer's voice using ai technology many experts state that deep fakes are the biggest cyber security threat nowadays and they're kind of right recent tech developments have advanced towards biometrical technologies from cell phone logs to bank accounts and passports these types of security that rely heavily on face recognition seem to be at risk with deep fakes evolving at such a fast pace big tech companies are aware of this harmful potential and are coming up with powerful tools including cutting edge technology to detect this kind of video wondering how to recognize a deep fake video some experts say it's the blinking that gives fakes away it's hard for an ai to closely recreate human behavior as a result deep fakes blink much less frequently than humans maybe one of the most talked about dangers of deep fake is related to politics in the 2020 u.s presidential elections many feared that deep fakes could influence the voting results fortunately these fears didn't materialize with the only deep fakes related to the elections being satirical however the us government established a deep fake task force which aims to safeguard the population from scammers who want to defraud america using artificial intelligence there are already fears that if people don't get better at differentiating fakes from authentic videos it could cost them prison sentences fake accusations or even false fakes just to give you an example three years ago in malaysia a politician was caught on several videos proving his sexual misconduct to which he sustained were manipulated when they actually weren't oh and by the way do you remember that case i mentioned at the beginning of this video the one about the cheerleaders mom well they couldn't prove the video was manipulated and even many experts concluded it might be real the woman's most high profile charges were dropped not without first making it to international headlines and seriously damaging her reputation not everything is grim though there have been positive uses of deep fake technology for example it is being used in training videos for companies and there are tv shows like sassy justice that create characters faces using ai there are even cases like the welcome to chechnya documentary in which the creators use dpake technology to protect the identity of the lgbtq plus community they were portraying in southern russia so is it a good or a bad technology before jumping to my final conclusions remember to like this video if you haven't already and to subscribe for more content on technology and cyber security the technology behind deep fakes is very new and maybe we shouldn't judge it just yet like any technology it can bring positive innovations regardless of the fact that there is a dark side to it one thing i'm certainly worried about is something called the liar's dividend according to the concept deep fix might allow criminals to walk free this is already happening and it's hindering legal processes along the way experts suggest in the coming years we should expect more and more of this to happen what are your actual thoughts on deep fakes what's the craziest deep fake video that you've ever watched and what do you think this technology will bring to the future let me know in the comments down below i'd love to read your takes on this technology thank you so much for joining me on this deep fakes explainer video i will see you in the next one