The viral "Hotel Lobby" meme, which lets users inhabit the bodies of Quavo and Takeoff using A.I., resembles a kind of digital blackface, but also speaks to a technology that makes appropriation the default. When I first heard "Versace," the 2013 breakout single by the Atlanta trio Migos, it was like seeing a rainbow for the first time. The hook is just Quavo saying the word "Versace" over and over, saccadic and uninterrupted: "Versace, Versace, Versace, Versace!" It's not the repetition of the designer name itself that gives the song gravitas but how Quavo and his bandmates, Offset and Takeoff, accent and manipulate the word into eighth-note triplets. They didn't invent this style of vocal performance, but they did revolutionize its use in hip-hop and popular music, with everyone from Taylor Swift to Ariana Grande adopting iterations of what came to be known simply as the "Migos flow." In the years following "Versace," the group notched two No. 1 albums, tied a Beatles chart record, and set off multiple online trends.

An interrogater tries to get to the bottom of a surreal scandal while green screen actors meddle with the story in Jess and Morgs' inventive production W hat audiences remember most from a political interview, a voiceover tells the prime minister (Kennedy Muntanga) as he prepares to face his TV interrogator (Rebecca Bassett-Graham, coiffed à la Emily Maitlis), is less the words themselves than the tone of voice and the tenor of the body. Muntanga is on point, then: his arms sweep, his fingers beetle and his hands spread out, as if he were wordlessly fielding fly-by questions and offering open statements. This setup lands right in the zone for creative duo Jess and Morgs (Jessica Wright and Morgann Runacre-Temple), whose turf is a congenial mix of choreography, film and theatre. In Deepfake, along with writer Jeff James, they explore the various unravellings of an encounter in which the interviewer tries to find the truth behind a surreal - but maybe real? - story in which the PM was seen variously spattered with yellow paint, with his flies undone, and partaking in a ritual involving a deer's head. The content of these scenarios perhaps matters less than the ingenious manner of their staging (props to the design team too), which deploys green screen, live relay and other film and stage effects to storify the interview with simulated settings, duplicates of the figure of the PM, selective perspectives and closeups of the central encounter.

The potential public safety hazard in a popular reservoir never actually existed. More information Adding us as a Preferred Source in Google by using this link indicates that you would like to see more of our content in Google News results. A wild saltwater crocodile baby rests on the head of its mother in Singapore's Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve on June 26, 2022. A man in Singapore faces up to 10 years in prison for creating an AI-generated image of a crocodile lurking in a popular public reservoir. The deepfake ignited a public panic and sent local officials on a wild goose (or crocodile) chase over a public safety hazard that never actually existed.

'This gap opens up of doubt and scepticism about everything': Jess and Morgs confront the politics of deepfakes I t appears the interviewer has got him on the ropes. "For the record, I did not take part in a pagan ceremony with minor members of the royal family in which we daubed ourselves in paint," states the beleaguered politician, caught outside Buckingham Palace with his flies undone and forced to defend himself. This is a fabrication, of course - I'm watching the scene play out in an east London dance studio - but it doesn't feel miles away from something that could be true. And how do we know what's the truth anyway? The pair tell modern stories with ambitious tech - film and live camera work - and often techy themes, too.

Meta has had policy changes recommended to it, including demoting'high risk' content, making it less likely to appear in users' feeds. Meta has had policy changes recommended to it, including demoting'high risk' content, making it less likely to appear in users' feeds. Meta ordered to remove UK deepfakes as oversight board criticises'inadequate' safeguards Meta's "supreme court" has ordered the tech company to take down deepfake videos of a UK politician and a young Muslim woman from Facebook and do more to tackle AI-generated fake imagery . A fake video showing a Labour party councillor in Scotland making inflammatory comments about refugees should not have been left up by Facebook, the board said. It also ruled that an AI-generated video of a Muslim campaign volunteer should have been removed after it falsely depicted her offering health advice while carrying out absurd exercises or eating junk food.

Matt Ford is a freelance contributor to Mashable. All products featured here are independently selected by our editors and writers. If you buy something through links on our site, Mashable may earn an affiliate commission. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Learn more about how we select deals .

In the biggest-ever legal action against harmful deepfake websites, the Manhattan District Attorney's Office has seized 12 sites that collectively targeted around 1,200 victims. For the best part of a decade, abusive deepfake "pornography" websites have published thousands of nonconsensual videos depicting women, including high-profile celebrities, politicians, and public figures, into sexual situations. Now, in what is likely the largest takedown of explicit deepfake websites to date, officials in New York have seized more than a dozen of the harmful sites. On Monday, the Manhattan District Attorney's Office announced the seizure of 12 domains which it says have been used for "unlawfully" sharing, publishing, and selling celebrity deepfake videos. Around 1,200 people--overwhelmingly women--were depicted in nonconsensual sexual images and videos on the websites, the office says.

We earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Deepfakes are wrecking influencers' credibility, one fake ad at a time E arlier this year, Emily Schuman, the creator of the lifestyle blog Cupcakes and Cashmere, saw a photo of herself she didn't recognize on Instagram . In a sponsored ad, Schuman, who has more than 500,000 Instagram followers, is holding up a vial of GLP-1 drugs, advertising the telehealth company Gala. There was just one problem: Schuman had never heard of Gala and had nothing to do with the ad. The ad was based on a digitally altered version of a selfie Schuman had taken in her car and posted on Instagram years earlier.

Pet owners, rescue agencies, and wildlife groups are calling for new safeguards as AI makes it harder to tell whether animals, from polar bears to house cats, are real or fake. AI-generated videos and pictures are destroying one of the largest and most enduring sources of joy and compassion on the internet: animals . Whether the imagery features sailors rescuing a polar bear, baby cows separated from their mothers, or a lost pet that was miraculously found, many people have reached the point where they can't take the creatures on their feeds at face value anymore. The explosion of deepfakes and AI slop over the past few years has led to widespread frustration among viewers, creators, and organizations that support animals, forcing everyone to hunt in the pixels for glitches or other telltale signs of AI. Mibbby Butler was overjoyed one day in April when she received a text message that her lost cat, Brooklyn, had supposedly been found.

Along with Anthony Albanese, common targets for deepfakes included ABC financial journalist Alan Kohler; and politicians Jacqui Lambie and Angus Taylor. Along with Anthony Albanese, common targets for deepfakes included ABC financial journalist Alan Kohler; and politicians Jacqui Lambie and Angus Taylor. Deepfake Anthony Albanese used in celebrity scams duping Australians out of $7.4m, Asic warns Australia's corporate watchdog says PM is the figure most commonly used in deepfakes to promote phony investment opportunities There has been a steep rise in scammers luring victims into phony investment opportunities using deepfakes of celebrities and politicians, Australia's corporate watchdog has warned. And Anthony Albanese is the figure most commonly co-opted. Real footage of the prime minister, overlaid with fake audio promising Australians can invest $4,000 to earn $40,000 a month, appears in one video online.