You won't believe the danger deepfakes pose.

[rfrazier]

This is a variation of a letter I sent to a colleague. Thought y'all would appreciate it.

Don't ever trust anything you see on a screen.

Hope you are well. I'd like to have a bit of fun with our next zoom meeting. The catch is, you can't tell people that I'm going to do anything ahead of time. This is off topic for our normal but ON topic for zoom meetings.

OK, that's a bit vague and open ended. I've just recently ran across some YouTube videos about the concept of deepfakes. This is artificial intelligence technology which literally allows anybody with a motive and some time to put anybody else's face on any video and make it look totally real. So, you can make anybody you want appear to say anything you want.

I'd like to share some of this content. If you want to preview some of it, you can look at the links below.

Even though this is for fun, there's a serious side to it. It's funny when someone TELLS you something is a fake. It's not so funny should you (believe that you) see somebody important on a screen that's saying something they didn't or wouldn't say. There are lots of dark and dangerous uses for this. One reason I want to show it is to jar people away from the idea of trusting everything they see on a screen.

Here are some links:

https://thiscatdoesnotexist.com/ - keep refreshing the page. Every cat is fake.

https://thispersondoesnotexist.com/ - keep refreshing the page. Every person is fake.

https://www.whichfaceisreal.com/ - try to find the real face. This will freak you out.

It gets worse. The following videos show how you can fake a VIDEO, from just a picture of someone sometimes, even a fake someone.

video 04:55 - Fake Face video from Picture using Deep learning/ai 2020

video 10:45 - How to Join Zoom Meetings Using Real-Time Deep Fakes!
main demonstrations are 00:00 - 05:20 and 08:58 - 10:45 with a section on
theory in the middle

video 08:38 - Still don't think deepfakes will be a problem? (Glenn Beck)
slightly political, but fake, slightly crude

video 02:41 - Princess Leia In New Star Wars!! - Deepfake
Rey (Daisy Ridley - from new Star Wars)
with the face of Princes Leia (Carrie Fisher from old Star Wars).
Look at the eyebrows.

Those are the basics. Let me know what you think.

May your bits be stable and your interfaces be fast. Ron

 

[Duckpaddle]

This is a variation of a letter I sent to a colleague. Thought y'all would appreciate it.

Don't ever trust anything you see on a screen.

Hope you are well. I'd like to have a bit of fun with our next zoom meeting. The catch is, you can't tell people that I'm going to do anything ahead of time. This is off topic for our normal but ON topic for zoom meetings.

OK, that's a bit vague and open ended. I've just recently ran across some YouTube videos about the concept of deepfakes. This is artificial intelligence technology which literally allows anybody with a motive and some time to put anybody else's face on any video and make it look totally real. So, you can make anybody you want appear to say anything you want.

I'd like to share some of this content. If you want to preview some of it, you can look at the links below.

Even though this is for fun, there's a serious side to it. It's funny when someone TELLS you something is a fake. It's not so funny should you (believe that you) see somebody important on a screen that's saying something they didn't or wouldn't say. There are lots of dark and dangerous uses for this. One reason I want to show it is to jar people away from the idea of trusting everything they see on a screen.

Here are some links:

https://thiscatdoesnotexist.com/ - keep refreshing the page. Every cat is fake.

https://thispersondoesnotexist.com/ - keep refreshing the page. Every person is fake.

https://www.whichfaceisreal.com/ - try to find the real face. This will freak you out.

It gets worse. The following videos show how you can fake a VIDEO, from just a picture of someone sometimes, even a fake someone.

video 04:55 - Fake Face video from Picture using Deep learning/ai 2020

video 10:45 - How to Join Zoom Meetings Using Real-Time Deep Fakes!
main demonstrations are 00:00 - 05:20 and 08:58 - 10:45 with a section on
theory in the middle

video 08:38 - Still don't think deepfakes will be a problem? (Glenn Beck)
slightly political, but fake, slightly crude

video 02:41 - Princess Leia In New Star Wars!! - Deepfake
Rey (Daisy Ridley - from new Star Wars)
with the face of Princes Leia (Carrie Fisher from old Star Wars).
Look at the eyebrows.

Those are the basics. Let me know what you think.

May your bits be stable and your interfaces be fast. Ron

Wish I had this earlier, It would have been perfect for the meeting I had before Christmas!

 

[rfrazier]

@Duckpaddle I was wanting to prank one of my zoom meetings but it looks like that photo to avatar method takes an nvidia gpu card which I don't have. I've been doing further research on YouTube with terms like zoom avatar, automated zoom avatar, etc. I've been discovering all kinds of things I didn't know. You can build models in something like Blender (very hard) or something like Vroid (not quite as hard). There's a THING called vtubing where you get on YouTube as an avatar rather than a person. Apparently, there's a lot of activity in the space. Apparently, you can spend little to no money becoming an avatar, or lots of it, commissioning the creation of models and virtual sets, and getting face, hand, and body capture hardware and software.

For some amusement, search for facerig software on YouTube. This is no longer on the market but videos are out there. It has a new name and a subscription model now. But, they had a bunch of premade avatars, so you could be a polar bear, or a fox, or various premade human figures. So, you point the camera at yourself, activate the avatar by jumping through some hoops, and a couple of programs, then you appear as that model on your meetings. BUT, here's what's interesting, the avatar moves exactly like you do. Kind of like that first YouTube video I mentioned. Turn your head, it turns its head. Blink your eyes, it blinks its eyes. Start speaking, it starts speaking visually. Open your mouth wide, it opens its mouth. It looks pretty amazing. In my case, I did think about appearing in the call as Chewbacca from Star Wars at least once if I could. But, I wouldn't do that all the time. I have not found a premade model for that though.

BUT, I severely dislike being in front of a camera. So, I was looking to create an avatar that looks something like me that I could control basic movements with the keyboard or mouse. That would be a bit more professional for normal use. And, it's better than just sending my photo. I actually found something I really liked called loomio, that did exactly that. But, they were absorbed into a game company and the product disappeared. So, I'm kind of striking out. If I want to take a photo of either myself or Chewbacca and make it an avatar, I don't think my PC can do that because of hardware limits. If I want fantasy premade avatar models that don't look like me, those are doable. But if I want a more professional avatar that resembles me, without spending months learning blender, etc., I currently haven't found a solution.

May your bits be stable and your interfaces be fast. Ron