Deepfakes

Images without context or presented with text that misrepresents what they show can be a powerful tool of misinformation, especially since photos make statements seem more believable.

It seems we have reached the age where computer generated "creations" are replacing humans. Shudu is a black supermodel that is digitally generated and exists only on the Internet, mostly Instagram. She already has earned some paid partnerships as an influencer.

Deepfake detection is an arms race, in which fakers and truth-seekers will keep advancing their respective technologies. Software freely available online lets anyone with a computer and some time on their hands create convincing fake videos.

Technology has its benefits. However, slowing the pace of its advance would give society more time to think through the consequences and debate which aspects of new technologies are desirable, and which should be outlawed.

FaceApp highlights a perennial problem among users on the Internet, that they hardly read the Privacy Policy or Terms of Use. It is worth taking time out to read what an app is all about before you use it.

In what seems to make fake news look like child's play, we now have deepfakes. This is a technology that allows one to make a video (or photo) of anyone, saying or doing anything.

Most deepfakes are made by showing a computer algorithm many images of a person, and then having it use what it saw to generate new face images. Researchers can now identify the manipulation of a video by looking closely at the pixels of specific frames.