The fight against deepfakes

Last week at the Black Hat cybersecurity conference in Las Vegas, the Democratic National Committee tried to raise awareness of the dangers of AI-doctored videos by displaying a deepfaked video of DNC Chair Tom Perez. Deepfakes are videos that have been manipulated, using deep learning tools, to superimpose a person's face onto a video of someone else. As the 2020 presidential election draws near, there's increasing concern over the potential threats deepfakes pose to the democratic process. In June, the U.S. Congress House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence held a hearing to discuss the threats of deefakes and other AI-manipulated media. But there's doubt over whether tech companies are ready to deal with deepfakes.