Hot take: I used to think all deepfakes were obvious but I caught myself believing one last week

I saw that clip of a politician saying something ridiculous, and for 10 seconds I was ready to post it on my timeline. Then I noticed the ear kept shifting position frame by frame, which is the same tell I've seen in like 30 other fake videos. Has anyone else almost fallen for one of these because the audio was really convincing?

3 comments

3 Comments

murphy.linda21d ago

That part about the audio is what really keeps me up at night honestly. The fact that you almost called your cousin shows how far we've come from those early deepfakes where the voice sounded like a robot with a cold. But here's what I want to know - do you think we're heading toward a point where the only way to verify anything will be checking some kind of blockchain chain of custody for every video? Because if audio keeps getting this good, and visual tells keep getting polished out, we're gonna need a whole new system for trusting what we see. The ear trick worked for me this time but I doubt it'll work for much longer.

gavinlopez21d ago

Wait, you said the audio was really convincing? That part got me because I think that's what's going to make these things impossible to spot pretty soon. I saw a deepfake last month where the voice sounded exactly like my cousin, accent and all, and I almost called him to ask if he got a new job. The shifting ear thing you noticed is smart, I usually just look at the teeth because they tend to blur or change shape when the video is fake. Its scary how good the sound quality is getting compared to just a year ago.

margaret_williams521d ago

Focus on the breathing next time. Deepfakes almost always mess up the rhythm of someone's inhales and exhales, especially during longer sentences. Also check the mouth corners - if they look blurry or like they're melting into the cheek when the person talks fast, it's a dead giveaway. I caught one last week by pausing the video and zooming in on the eyes, the reflections didn't match the room lighting at all.