Tackling deepfakes 'has turned into an arms race'

Tue, 26 Mar 2024 17:11:38 GMT
BBC News - Technology

The battle against fake images, video and audio is becoming ever harder as the tech improves

In common with other ID firms, faces a new threat - spotting so-called deepfakes.

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.

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.

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.

Deepfakes also have the potential to cause widespread societal disruption.

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.

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.

He doesn't think she should be responsible for spotting deepfakes either.

Call for people to spot deepfakes ahead of election.

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