A very tiny alteration can help deepfakes escape detection

Last month, Sophie Wilmès, the prime minister of Belgium, appeared in an online video to tell her audience that the COVID-19 pandemic was linked to the "exploitation and destruction by humans of our natural environment." Whether or not these two existential crises are connected, the fact is that Wilmès said no such thing. Produced by an organization of climate change activists, the video was actually a deepfake, or a form of fake media created using deep learning. Deepfakes are yet another way to spread misinformation--as if there wasn't enough fake news about the pandemic already. Because new security measures consistently catch many deepfake images and videos, people may be lulled into a false sense of security and believe we have the situation under control.