Will 2024 be the 'Deepfake Election'? AI videos blurring the line between fact and fiction
Ahead of the 2024 election season, experts are sounding the alarm about deepfake videos created by artificial intelligence.
Ahead of the 2024 election season, experts are sounding the alarm about deepfake videos created by artificial intelligence.
Ahead of the 2024 election season, experts are sounding the alarm about deepfake videos created by artificial intelligence.
Download the WJCL App for political news alerts: Apple | Google Play
Technology advocates and experts are sounding the alarm about deep fakes created by generative artificial intelligence.
A threat so serious that safe guards in place for you to detect them today will be outdated by tomorrow.
Some college educators believe the technology has value in the classroom.
"I think there's certainly a market for, you know, for example, in education, right? Instead of having you could have customized lessons for different students," says Dr. Hayden Wimmer, associate professor at Georgia Southern University Statesboro Campus.
This brave new world application is already being tested in some nationally and internationally campaigns. A political action committee that supported former presidential candidate Miami Mayor Francis Suarez released an artificial generated video of the candidate talking to voters in both English and Spanish, the PAC clearly stating the video was AI generated.
Eric Wilson, a Republican party political technologist, called the video cutting edge.
“Think about how difficult it is for voters maybe to get one on one time with a candidate. Innovations like artificial intelligence are going to make that that more possible than ever before,” said Wilson.
Generative artificial intelligence comes with a dark cloud. They're called deep fakes. Videos that appear to have public figures or celebrities saying something that is out of character or false.
One of the most recognizable is the video that featured former President Barrack Obama warning about deep fakes. Looks real but it is not. The deep fake was created by filmmaker and comedian Jordon Peele. Another is the deep fake of Hillary Clinton allegedly endorsing Republican presidential candidate Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Clinton never made those remarks and the video was debunked in April.
"We have not seen it used yet in an American political context. But we know that there are there are bad actors, both foreign and domestic, who would really like to sow chaos,” said Wilson.
There is a bigger threat, warns the founder and CEO of Deep Media, an artificial intelligence company. Rijul Gupta has been passionately warning about the potential harm of deepfakes and the need for regulation for videos produced by generative artificial intelligence especially with the national elections less than a year away.
“The 2024 election is going to be the deepfake election. We already saw some deepfakes come out in 2020, but they weren't good enough for people to be fooled. Unregulated AI is fundamentally a threat to democracy and society at large. Okay, so think about it like this. One of the things that our society and our democracy relies on is trust. Right. Trust in media. Trust in our politicians. And when you get to a place where any video you see online, whether it's real or fake, it could be fake,” said Gupta.
Wimmer said the early versions of deep fakes can be exposed by experts and a trained public. He instructs people to look closely at the face of the person in the video to identify warning signs.
Is there fuzziness around the jaw? Eye glasses that sit perfectly balanced on the nose? Does the person's lips and audio sync up.
“All these things in themselves don't say it is fake. But if you look at it, you can say something is not just right,” said Wimmer.
Still can’t decide if the video is real or a fake? Wimmer suggests to compare it to what has been reported in major newspapers, network news and even candidate websites.
"It is going to get to the point where a human can't detect it and the only way we are going to detect it is through computers,” said Wimmer.
Gupta said his company is offering another option by using its technology to check a video to see if it is real or a fake.
“So right now they can go to our Deepfake detection website. They can sign up and upload up to ten audio video images or texts a day completely for free to protect themselves. But really, we see A.I. containment as the future of antivirus software, and the way that consumers are going to be protected at scale is for the large social media companies, the telecom companies and the device manufacturers to integrate A.I. containment from the top down,” said Gupta. The link to check deepfakes on Deep Media is https://www.deepmedia.ai/detection