Singaporean wins $100k prize in challenge to build AI models that detect deepfakes

SINGAPORE - A one-man team comprising Singaporean research scientist Wang Weimin beat 469 other teams from around the world in a five-month-long challenge to develop the best artificial intelligence (AI) model for detecting deepfakes, or digitally altered video clips. Mr Wang's model was 98.53 per cent accurate at telling apart genuine clips from those that featured digitally manipulated faces, voices or both. On Friday (April 29), the National University of Singapore graduate was awarded first place and a cash prize of $100,000 in the Trusted Media Challenge organised by AI Singapore, a national AI programme office under the National Research Foundation. Mr Wang, who works at Chinese tech giant ByteDance, which owns TikTok, was also offered a $300,000 start-up grant to commercialise his invention. But he said he is hoping to incorporate his AI model into his company's BytePlus platform and offer deepfake detection as a service to its clients.