The beginning of the 21st century brought us many joys and improved the way we communicate with the world. Thanks to the Internet, a person from Russia can connect via video chat with a friend, for example, from Australia.
Distance is no longer a hindrance to communication. We work, study and meet friends via the Internet. Skype, Facebook, WhatsApp are applications that accompany us almost 24 hours a day. Technologies that allow you to be online 24/7 are a great accelerator for the development of the world, but they also pose a threat to it. How can technology negatively impact business, politics, and the world of culture?
Actual news is an element of stunning reality
Information society – scientists use this term to define our society, for which information is the most valuable commodity. The one who knows more is the key player in the market.
Media companies are competing to provide people with new sensational news from the world of politics, business and sports as soon as possible. The competition for the recipient sometimes leads to the use of unethical methods – the so-called fake news. This information is fake, does not correspond to reality, but is “well clickable” and evokes emotions in the reader.
Fake news is easy to refute – it’s just written guesses, rumors, false information. But what if the recipient sees, let’s emphasize SEE, a photo or video in which a politician accepts a bribe, a respected actress has sex, and an athlete drinks alcohol in a public place? That’s how we come to deepfake.
What is deepfake
It is an image processing technique that combines images of human faces using artificial intelligence techniques. We are talking about the combination and superimposition of moving and still images on the original images or films using computer training systems.
You can see certain people say things they would never say or do things they would never do in front of the cameras. Videos created with deepfake technology are so well edited that the viewer cannot notice that a particular face has been superimposed by a computer.
Typically, creating a video involves swapping one person’s face for that of another, or lip-synching so that the lips move in accordance with the main soundtrack. Thanks to artificial intelligence, you can also fake a soundtrack or a phone call!
It started at the end of 2017
When exactly the deepfake technique was invented is impossible to establish. It started gaining popularity in 2017 when a worked-out pornographic film appeared on the internet, allegedly starring … Hollywood actress Gadot, best known for her role as Wonder Woman.
Many people in the marketing and public relations industry believe that making and releasing films on the Internet, where a specific figure is superimposed on the face of a famous person, is a huge danger. The deepfake technique is a tool that jeopardizes the reputation and image of especially famous and respected personalities – politicians, actors, athletes, entrepreneurs.
Business threat
In August 2019, the British Financial Times reported on three companies that were scammed using forged records prepared using deepfake technology. The scammers posed as company directors and made phone calls to employees who had access to the funds.
During the conversation, they asked for a transfer to their personal accounts. In one case, a person transferred as much as $10 million for an “Internet burglar”. Symantec, an online data protection company, predicts that over time, attacks on business corporations will include, for example, sabotage of stock prices or brand image through fake videos showing false statements from company management.
How to deal with it
Experts emphasize that it is very difficult to fight cyber attacks and new technologies used by hackers. They offer two solutions that can be implemented. First of all, IT companies should develop such programs and technological solutions that would make it easy to determine which film is counterfeit. The second solution is to define a legal framework that will punish those who use deepfakes to slander others.
The only plus is that the first deepfakes became available to viewers three years ago, that is, relatively recently. Technology is still evolving, and yet not everyone can put on the face of a famous person, and not everyone has the tools to do so. However, experts say that in 4-5 years such programs will appear, and the majority of the population will be able to use them.
Investing in cybersecurity can protect against loss of reputation and good image in the future, so it is worth taking care of the security and confidential data of company employees today.
