TECHNOLOGY
MEMBER EXPERTS
Deepfakes Artificial Intelligence vs Real Intelligence Do you believe what you see? Did Obama really say that (he probably did but not on video)? Can you tell real from fake? And if you could, would you share it with others? Deepfakes are getting better and better yet (some) humans remain the best judges of the truth despite the efforts of the machines. The more well-known deepfakes videos circulating are either for entertainment, such as Bill Hader channelling and momentarily becoming Tom Cruise and Seth Rogan, or to illustrate the danger of deepfakes, as pithily done by Jordan Peele (and Barak Obama). More disturbingly a recent example of Joe Biden falling asleep in an interview has surfaced, which in the year of the US elections takes an altogether more sinister turn. The dissemination of false information online is a well-recognised societal problem that has been around since the internet itself, and indeed the spread of disinformation is a fundamental characteristic of human self-interest.
Dr Simon J. Cropper University of Melbourne
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Image: Morning Brew/ Unsplash
Sentry
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OCTOBER 2020
