The creation of deepfake videos has been growing on the internet in recent years and has even begun to spread into people’s everyday lives. While for the most part used for fun, such as when a YouTube channel deepfaked Hideo Kojima onto every Death Stranding character in the game’s trailer, the potential for the technology’s nefarious abuse has become increasingly apparent.
For those unfamiliar with the term deepfake, it is a method for replacing a person’s likeness and/or voice in an existing image or video with that of another person’s. In the gaming world, this often means something innocuous and entertaining like when a Redditor deepfaked their character in The Division 2 into Chuck Norris. However, in March, a Pennsylvania cheerleader’s mother used the technology to create fake videos of her daughter’s rivals drinking alcohol and vaping in order to get them kicked off the squad.
This more embarrassing and even dangerous use of deepfakes will likely become more widespread as the technology becomes more easily accessible. There are even tutorials available on YouTube and smartphone apps to simplify the process for laymen. A patent application published by Sony on April 22, 2021, reveals that the company is attempting to develop AI that will detect if a video has been deepfaked or otherwise tampered with.
The patent application categorizes deepfake technology as “interesting and entertaining but potentially sinister.” However, there are methods for delving into an image or video and determining whether it has been altered, because certain artifacts or irregularities get left behind. These artifacts might include lighting or texture irregularities in a faked image that are not present in the original. Some of these might be discernible to a trained eye; others are undetectable unless processed through a neural network or AI program.
While the technology discussed in the patent has broad world applications, the patent publication specifically mentions “computing devices including game consoles such as Sony PlayStation…or other manufacturer virtual reality headsets” and later explains that the faked image may be “an I-frame from a video stream.” Sony’s technology would therefore hopefully be able to thwart both benign and malicious deepfakes of gaming streamers. It seems just a matter of time before people begin to deepfake streamers, which could have many negative consequences.
The gaming world tends to be lighthearted, but it is not all laughter and good times, giving rise to the potential need for deepfake detection technology. Some gamers take things to the next level, sending police to the houses of streamers they don’t like or players they have lost matches to. Recently, Call of Duty YouTube content creator Driftor mentioned that multiple swatting incidents have almost resulted in his death four or five times. Indeed, in 2017, a man named Tyler Barris made a false police report against a different Call of Duty player and provided the wrong address, which resulted in a SWAT team killing Andrew Finch, a man with no involvement in the feud.
Source: WIPO, CNN