Deepfakes are more than silly games and pranks. At least on five accounts, they almost had the power to change the political course of entire countries. What many think of when hearing the word "deepfake" are viral videos of Tom Cruise "goofing around" on Tik Tok. Yet, it's the most harmless example of what a recording posing as a famous person can do. As seen in the video of Barack Obama created by Jordan Peele and BuzzFeed with the help of the latest AI technology, deepfakes can be rather convincing in posing as famous figures.

Since the weeks leading up to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, warnings have been circulating that Russia might use deepfake videos--convincing fake videos created with artificial intelligence-- in the surrounding information war. Perhaps they would use deepfakes to fabricate a pretext for the invasion, or to have Ukrainian President Zelensky issue an order to surrender. With bated breath we waited, but no sign of deepfakery occurred. Then finally, on March 16--20 days into the invasion and 13 days after Ukraine warned this exact scenario might happen--a deepfake of Zelensky surrendering indeed appeared, and it was … unconvincing and obvious. The video editing was low-quality, and the voice was noticeably off; few people seem to have been fooled by it.

Real-time feedback helps drive learning. This is especially important for designing presentations, learning new languages, and strengthening other essential skills that are critical to succeed in today's workplace. However, many students and lifelong learners lack access to effective face-to-face instruction to hone these skills. In addition, with the rapid adoption of remote learning, educators are seeking more effective ways to engage their students and provide feedback and guidance in online learning environments. Bongo is filling that gap using video-based engagement and personalized feedback.

Before I go any further it's probably worth establishing what a Deepfake is and isn't. A technique by which a digital image or video can be superimposed onto another, which maintains the appearance of an unedited image or video. The term is often misinterpreted, and that's potentially as a result of definitions like this. The concept of manipulating images and video in this way is certainly not a new concept. Visual effects artists working on Hollywood films back in the '90s would probably describe parts of their job as something very similar to this.

The original example of a deepfake (by reddit user /u/deepfake) swapped the face of an actress onto the body of a porn performer in a video – which was, of course, completely unethical, although not initially illegal. Other deepfakes have changed what famous people were saying, or the language they were speaking. Deepfakes extend the idea of video (or movie) compositing, which has been done for decades. Significant video skills, time, and equipment go into video compositing; video deepfakes require much less skill, time (assuming you have GPUs), and equipment, although they are often unconvincing to careful observers. Originally, deepfakes relied on autoencoders, a type of unsupervised neural network, and many still do.

None of these people exist. These images were generated using deepfake technology. Last month during ESPN's hit documentary series The Last Dance, State Farm debuted a TV commercial that has become one of the most widely discussed ads in recent memory. It appeared to show footage from 1998 of an ESPN analyst making shockingly accurate predictions about the year 2020. As it turned out, the clip was not genuine: it was generated using cutting-edge AI.

This fall, Gabon was facing an odd and tenuous political situation. President Ali Bongo had been out of the country since October receiving medical treatment in Saudi Arabia and London and had not been seen in public. People in Gabon and observers outside the country were growing suspicious about the president's well being, and the government's lack of answers only fueled doubts; some even said he was dead. After months of little information, on December 9th, the country's vice president announced that Bongo had suffered a stroke in the autumn, but remained in good shape. Despite such assurances, civil society groups and many members of the public wondered why Bongo, if he was well, had not made any public appearances, save for a few pictures of him released by the government along with a silent video.