Deepfakes: Are They Becoming a Problem?
- Správne Právne
- Dec 11, 2022
- 4 min read
Updated: Jan 3, 2023
Deepfakes
Trigger Warning : suicide, sexual exploitation
What is a deepfake?
The word deepfake is a combination of deep-learning and fake. It is a form of synthetic media that uses large quantities of data to create fake media files. Deep-learning is a form of AI, in the case of deepfakes, deep-learning algorithms are used.
Currently Happening
The world is currently catching up with deepfake related crimes. New legislation is being created to combat the vast variety of crimes that can be committed using deepfake technology (eg. financial fraud, sexual harassment,...). Currently up to 96% of deepfakes are porn.
The Case of Taiwanese Influencer Zamy
Zamy is an attractive Taiwanese influencer who spent years creating a wholesome and reputable image and building a steady fanbase. In November 2021 Zamy started getting strange messages from her fans, haters and everyone in between, asking about her “leaked video”. Zamy had no idea what all the messages were referring to, so she decided to search. What she found shocked her.
She discovered a sex tape and nude pictures. In the video, her face was visible, however something was slightly off about it. She didn’t remember anything about taking any pictures or videos of that sort. She was also sure, she couldn’t speak Japanese, unlike the woman in the video. What confirmed her suspicions was that her body proportions were very off in both the video and pictures. At the end of the video, there was an advertisement redirecting the viewer to a website containing more content.
After doing some digging, Zamy found out that the video was from a Telegram group. She decided to infiltrate the group and document the whole process for her YouTube channel to prove that she wasn’t involved in any of this. The porn video was a deepfake.The access fees to enter the group started at 14$.
This Telegram group turned out to be a group od thousands of people who paid to access all sorts of sexual content. Videos posted in this group included fake sex-tapes of many celebrities, politicians, minors, fake rape videos etc. Every Wednesday, the group administrators posted a poll, where the subscribers were able to vote for next week’s victim. On average around 500 people participated weekly. They themselves got to choose whose face would be used non-consensually in a porn video or pictures.
There were even giveaways hosted by the administrators. The winner could request a fake video of anyone to be created (even people from their real life). They simply had to provide enough pictures and videos. The more material they provided, the more realistic their desired video would turn out to be. If the group members had enough money, they could get a custom video made. Again they only had to provide the material and thousands of dollars.
Zamy posted the video about her discoveries, hoping to get the group deleted with enough outrage. Unfortunately the group’s subscriber count only got higher as the group now attracted more attention. Zamy managed to clear her name as she could easily prove that it was not her in the video and pictures (she has different body proportions and doesn’t speak Japanese). However when she considered taking legal action, she was recommended by her lawyer not to do so, as they wouldn’t be able to find and prove the identity of the group admin and video creator.
Zamy’s case was not the only one. Apart from her, many other women experienced the same thing. Some of them never managed to prove that the video was a deepfake, because the quality and attention to detail were better. As a result of that, the lives of many were ruined, some even committed suicide to avoid shame and hate.
Deepfake Scam Call
After a British energy company was acquired by a German parent company. One day the “CEO” of the parent company made a call to the executive of the British company with a request to transfer 250 000$ to a Hungarian bank account for a certain business purpose.
The cadence, accent, punctuation and tone of the caller was on spot, an almost perfect imitation of the actual CEO. The transfer was completed and there was no suspicion. Later there was another voice mail from the “CEO” with a similar request. As the situation was unusual it aroused suspicion and the British executive reported the situation to the fraud department and later to the authorities. After investigation, it turned out that the call was a scam call and the money was stolen. Unfortunately the scam callers were not caught.
Political Deepfakes
In March of 2022 a 1 minute video started circulating of the Ukrainian president seemingly telling his soldiers to put down their arms and surrender to Russia. Thankfully social media platforms took the video down promptly and it was debunked but hackers still managed to broadcast a short segment of it on the TV station Ukraine 24. President Zelensky had to respond with his own video to make their stance in the conflict clear. It remains unclear who created the video.
Good Uses of Deepfakes
Deepfake technology can of course be used for good/useful purposes as well. Examples include hologram concerts, protecting identities of people (eg. whistle-blowers in a whistle-blower documentary), narrating documentaries (Andy Warhol’s Netflix Docuseries) and many others.
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* Please note that at no point in this blog am I providing legal advice or claiming to be a professional. These blogs are for entertainment and educational purposes only.*
As someone interested in Artitifical Intelligence, it's great to learn more.