How to Identify Deepfake Videos and Protect Yourself

What are Deepfakes

Imagine stumbling upon a video of a politician saying something controversial and completely unbelievable. But something feels off.

"Is this video for real!"

This is where our journey into deepfakes begins. Deepfakes use AI to create hyper-realistic videos, making it hard to distinguish real from fake. We are now in the world of AI technologies where we see some unbelievable transformations that work for the wellbeing of mankind. But there are a few who exploit everything for their own benefits and interest or just to create chaos.

How to Validate if a Video/Audio is Authentic

I would like to quote one of my favorite superheroes, Uncle Ben:

"With great power comes great responsibility."

Now, AI tools like Resemble AI and Intel's FakeCatcher are the vigilant guardians in our story. They analyze videos for subtle inconsistencies, helping you separate truth from deception. We can use these softwares to first validate if what you see online is actually true or not. Morphing someone's photos, videos, or audio has been done for a long time now. But with advancements in AI models, it's getting easier to do so. In such difficult times, here are a few tools we can use to authenticate what you see:

These tools represent hope in an era where seeing might not always be believing.

1. Deepfake-o-Meter: A free web-based tool that allows users to upload a video or a URL of a video to analyze it for signs of deepfake manipulation. It utilizes various deep learning methods to detect facial expressions, eye movements, lip sync, and other features that indicate whether a video is real or fake.

2. DeepWare AI: A community-driven, open-source tool that assists in DeepFake detection. Trained on various sources, including live content, DeepWare AI is adept at identifying synthetic media.

3. Sentinel: Sentinel's deepfake detection technology is designed to protect the authenticity and reliability of digital content. Users can upload digital media for automated AI-forgery analysis, receiving a comprehensive report highlighting potential alterations.

4. Microsoft’s Video Authenticator Tool: This tool analyzes videos and determines the probability of them being deepfakes. It uses machine learning and blockchain technology to detect inconsistencies.

5. Sensity AI: Trained to identify the latest GAN frameworks and diffusion technologies, Sensity AI boasts a high success rate in detecting manipulations in content generated by AI generators like DALL-E and FaceSwap.

6. WeVerify: A collaborative verification platform that utilizes AI and human expertise to detect and verify online content, including deepfakes. It's a free tool primarily intended for journalists, fact-checkers, and researchers.

Let's Get Serious with Privacy

Deepfake targets everyone, not just celebrities and political figures. It's time for us to realize the importance of protecting our digital identity. We have to learn how to manage our digital footprint, much like a knight fortifying their castle. Understand that each privacy setting and careful sharing is a brick in our fortress against deepfakes.

Social Media - A Double-Edged Sword

Our journey takes a twist in the maze of social media. Here, deepfakes can spread like wildfire. Misinformation can spread quickly, and we have ways to combat it. We must be vigilant about what we share and how much we share on social media.

Blockchain - The Immutable Ledger

We cannot trust what we see, what we hear, or videos of ourselves surfacing on the internet. We are in need of a revolution in the social media as we see it today. An integration of blockchain for all the content we post online is ultimately necessary for us to have a single source of truth. In a future scenario, blockchain emerges as a revolutionary force.

It provides an unforgeable record of digital content, like a time capsule of truth. This technology offers new hope in validating content authenticity, changing the way we trust digital media.

I have to side with Elon Musk with his idea of Blockchain based social media.

Conclusion

Instead of worrying about politicians, the best way to protect ourselves is to control what we post on social media and take privacy settings seriously. Vigilance and awareness are key in preventing our images from being used in ways we never intended. Let's embrace these tools and knowledge to build a more secure digital future.