How fake-porn opponents are fighting back

The best hope for fighting computer-generated fake-porn videos might come from a surprising source: the artificial intelligence software itself. Technical experts and online trackers say they are developing tools that could automatically spot these "deepfakes" by using the software's skills against it, deploying image-recognition algorithms that could help detect the ways their imagery bends belief. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Pentagon's high-tech research arm known as DARPA, is funding researchers with hopes of designing an automated system that could identify the kinds of fakes that could be used in propaganda campaigns or political blackmail. Military officials have advertised the contracts -- code-named "MediFor," for "media forensics" -- by saying they want "to level the digital imagery playing field, which currently favors the manipulator." The photo-verification start-up Truepic checks for manipulations in videos and saves the originals into a digital vault so other viewers -- insurance agencies, online shoppers, anti-fraud investigators -- can confirm for themselves.