PC Magazine - USA (2020-04)

What Is a Deepfake? BY BEN DICKSON

I

n the opening session of his 2020 introductory course on deep learning,

Alexander Amini, a PhD student at the Massachusetts Institute of

Technology (MIT), had invited a famous guest: former US President

Barack Obama.

³'HHSOHDUQLQJLVUHYROXWLRQL]LQJVRPDQ\¿HOGVIURPURERWLFVWRPHGLFLQHDQG

everything in between,” said Obama, who joined the class by video conference.

$IWHUVSHDNLQJDELWPRUHRQWKHYLUWXHVRIDUWL¿FLDOLQWHOOLJHQFH³2EDPD ́PDGH

an important revelation: “In fact, this entire speech and video are not real and

ZHUHFUHDWHGXVLQJGHHSOHDUQLQJDQGDUWL¿FLDOLQWHOOLJHQFH ́

Amini’s video was, in fact, a deepfake—an AI-doctored video in which the facial

PRYHPHQWVRIDQDFWRUDUHWUDQVIHUUHGWRWKDWRIDWDUJHW6LQFH¿UVWDSSHDULQJ

in 2018, deepfake technology has evolved from hobbyist experimentation to an

H̆HFWLYHDQGGDQJHURXVWRRO'HHSIDNHVKDYHEHHQXVHGDJDLQVWFHOHEULWLHVDQG

politicians and have become a threat to the very fabric of truth.

EXPLAINER

WHAT’S NEW NOW

Pho

to^ c

redi

t:Ve

ctor

Min

e