Making Deepfakes Gets Cheaper and Easier Thanks to A.I. - The New York Times

"What's different is that everybody can do it now," said Britt Paris, an assistant professor of library and information science at Rutgers University who helped coin the term "cheapfakes." Reams of manipulated content have circulated on TikTok and elsewhere for years, typically using more homespun tricks like careful editing or the swapping of one audio clip for another. In one video on TikTok, Vice President Kamala Harris appeared to say everyone hospitalized for Covid-19 was vaccinated. In fact, she said the patients were unvaccinated. Graphika, a research firm that studies disinformation, spotted deepfakes of fictional news anchors that pro-China bot accounts distributed late last year, in the first known example of the technology's being used for state-aligned influence campaigns.