|
|
- What are Deepfakes
- ==================
-
- We all know that you can do silly face swaps with snap chat and other apps.
- Previously face swapping faces on videos was terrible because you simply
- sequentially swapped all the faces frame by frame. As a result, the quality was
- very poor and did not handle head movements well. A Reddit user by the name of
- Deepfake created a recurrent neural net which accurately face swaps videos.
- Deepfake(the user) initially gathered a following by swapping celebrity faces
- onto porn videos.
-
- Reddit has banned Deepfake and Pornhub has banned deepfakes from their
- platforms. Despite the attempts to remove fake deepfake videos, they are
- currently all over the internet.
-
- How Can You Make Deepfakes
- ==========================
-
- Deepfake created FakeApp which allows anybody to use his technology to make
- deepfake videos. The website [FakeApp](https://www.fakeapp.org/) contains both
- downloads and tutorials for anybody who is interested in using this technology.
- Recurrent neural nets are very computational heavy and will take you about a day
- of GPU power to generate a good deepfake.
-
- Moral Outrage
- =============
-
- There internet is currently in an uproar over this topic. In most cases is
- obvious which videos are deep faked, however, that can change in a few years –
- or even months. How do we prove that a video is credible if it could be faked
- convincingly? It is not unforeseeable that in the future someone will try to use
- this technology to blackmail a politician and smear their campaign.
-
- Where do you draw the line between satire and freedom of speech? Most people
- argue that we should ban the use of deepfakes on any video that does not have
- the consent of the two people being swapped. However, is it fair to apply that
- rule to memes involving Nicholas Cage?
-
- It is worth mentioning that there are very little laws that can be used
- regarding deepfaked content. If the content is seen as harassment, damaging, or
- violates copyright it is clearly illegal. But, besides that, there are very
- little laws regulating this new realm.
-
- Future Applications
- ===================
-
- This technology may seem creepy and offsetting – especially when you are only
- considering it for face swapping celebrities on porn. The applications of this
- technology are limitless. Consider the movie industry, recurrent neural net
- technology may be used to enhance CGI. 3D modeling in video games could also use
- this technology to create more realistic graphics.
-
- Conclusion
- ==========
-
- Don’t blame or ban the technology. There will always be people who misuse the
- technology, but, the benefits of such technologies outweigh the negative
- consequences.
-
- Deep recurrent neural nets are here to stay. I foresee that in the near future
- we will have a neural net which can generate audio which sounds like someone
- else.
|
