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> Deepfakes don't provide any fundamentally new capability I'm not sure this is entirely true, although your larger point is quite good. People have been faki

> Deepfakes don't provide any fundamentally new capability I'm not sure this is entirely true, although your larger point is quite good. People have been faking video since the dawn of video, yes. But for several decades, a clear, high-res video of a specific person has been pretty much inviolate. Faking a steady closeup of a president or famous actress would have been unthinkable - no VFX hoax ever convincingly impersonated Nixon. As a result, bad actors had to resort to deceptive editing, low-quality "covert" footage, or very rarely an exceptional look-alike. Even Hollywood had to rely on old footage and rewrites when an actor died. Today, we're right on the edge of changing that. MIT can revive the President, but not perfectly, and only to the standards of a 70s news video. Lucasfilms can revive Carrie Fisher, but not well enough to fool an alert viewer, and not in a natural/unedited setting. Within a few years, we might hit a level that tricks even the most acute viewer, and is only caught by forensic analysis. We've been there with photographs for years, but it's new ground for video.

pc86 7y ago
The point is that nobody talks about making altered photographs illegal, or having federal regulations around altering photographs, or anything remotely as ridiculous. But because it's video everybody is losing their minds.
owl57 7y ago
To me Tarkin felt much more natural than Leia in that film. Maybe people with more "official" face expression are in danger sooner.
jrockway 7y ago
> no VFX hoax ever convincingly impersonated Nixon Because nobody really cares about Nixon. People fake UFO videos because they're clickbait. You can hit and run and make $10,000 on YouTube revenue before someone debunks you. The reason political campaigns aren't using VFX to make their opponents look bad is because someone would eventually figure it out and the backlash would be immense. Additionally, it's not even necessary. People do fine planting conspiracy theories and taking advantage of people's disinterest in fact checking to say whatever they want, all without investing any effort in video production. I predict that deepfakes will be nothing but a series of amusing "I can't believe they thought they could get away with that" stories.

pc86 7y ago

The point is that nobody talks about making altered photographs illegal, or having federal regulations around altering photographs, or anything remotely as ridiculous. But because it's video everybody is losing their minds.

owl57 7y ago

To me Tarkin felt much more natural than Leia in that film. Maybe people with more "official" face expression are in danger sooner.

jrockway 7y ago

> no VFX hoax ever convincingly impersonated Nixon Because nobody really cares about Nixon. People fake UFO videos because they're clickbait. You can hit and run and make $10,000 on YouTube revenue before someone debunks you. The reason political campaigns aren't using VFX to make their opponents look bad is because someone would eventually figure it out and the backlash would be immense. Additionally, it's not even necessary. People do fine planting conspiracy theories and taking advantage of people's disinterest in fact checking to say whatever they want, all without investing any effort in video production. I predict that deepfakes will be nothing but a series of amusing "I can't believe they thought they could get away with that" stories.