Deepfakes: Disturbingly High Quality Fake Videos

Deepfakes: Disturbingly High Quality Fake Videos

Image manipulation is not new. However, the faked photos and videos are getting better and better. Indistinguishable from real. And anyone can make them.


The most famous bachelor in our country is undoubtedly Mark Rutte. So it’s no wonder that the almost longest-serving prime minister of the Netherlands was recently a guest on the TV dating program ‘First Dates’, as can be seen in the video below.

Of course the video is fake. Modern imaging technology is capable of anything. Like the video in which Barack Obama, former US president, says: ‘We are entering an era where our enemies have the opportunity to put all kinds of statements into anyone’s mouth at any time. Even if one would never make these statements.’ A voice actor puts those words in his mouth. But those who don’t know anything just think they are looking at Obama.

Watch how it works in the video below.

Fake news is of all times. Stalin had disgraced comrades, such as Trotsky, removed from photographs. Less democratic rulers have always been prone to manipulation of history. But because everyone these days just has a super-powerful computer in their pocket, image manipulation is within everyone’s reach. And so suddenly a porn video about a newsreader pops up Dionne Stax. Manipulated of course. But who will know what is real and what is fake?

Combine images with artificial intelligence and everything becomes possible. The technique that generates lifelike fake videos is called deepfake. First, images are analysed. Various properties are measured during this process. Lighting, color shadows, movement, build-up of the skin and mimicry. Artificial intelligence uses all this data to imitate a face and movement. Today’s computing power is so great that the fake face can hardly be distinguished from the real one.

Theo Gevers, professor of Computer Vision at the University of Amsterdam, is concerned with the consequences of fake videos. He developed an online quiz. To make clear how advanced the modern techniques are. Participants test whether they can distinguish an image from a fake video from the real one. Do you dare the challenge of the test? Although the questions are in English, you only have to say which image is real (real) or fake (fake).

Want to experience for yourself how simple image manipulation has become? Then try the Reface app. Take a selfie with the app. Then choose one of the short movies in the app and swap the face with your selfie. The result that appears within seconds is astonishing.

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