Watching AI generated Zuckerberg's (fake) video is scary
What's the story
We all have our concerns regarding Facebook and the huge amount of data it mines. The company has been marred by plenty of scandals, but just recently, we witnessed something even worse: the sinister avatar of Mark Zuckerberg, its co-founder. Zuck was seen in an AI-generated deepfaked video, talking about how he controls people's 'lives and futures'. Here are the details.
Clip
What is a deepfake video?
Deepfakes are AI-generated clips that show the face, voice, and sometimes even expressions of one person, mostly a celebrity or politician, all generated programmatically. This kind of technology has been around for a while and is often seen as the next-level of spreading misinformation. In fact, various celebs, including Gal Gadot and Scarlett Johansson, have already been targeted via deepfakes.
Incident
And, now Zuckerberg is the latest target
In the latest case, UK-based artists Bill Posters and Daniel Howe created a deepfaked video of Zuckerberg. They worked with ad agency Canny and posted the clip showing Zuck in poor light on Instagram. In the clip, the AI-created version of the Facebook boss was seen ranting about his power and how he holds control of people's data, lives, and futures.
Quote
Here's what the fake Zuckerberg said in the clip
"Imagine this for a second: one man with total control of billions of people's stolen data, all their secrets, their lives, their futures," fake-Zuckerberg said. "I owe it all to Spectre (the artists' deepfake project). Spectre showed me whoever controls the data, controls the future."
Action
Interestingly, Instagram did not take the video down
As the video went viral, we all expected some intervention from Instagram, which is also a Facebook-owned product. However, a spokesperson from the photo-sharing company said the content would be treated "the same way we treat all misinformation on Instagram." The rep noted that the video would be removed from Instagram's recommendation channels like Explore if "third-party factcheckers mark it as false."
AI power
Either way, this shows the power of AI
The video, which is still available on Instagram, can easily freak you out if you are not aware of deepfakes. The tech used by artists has mimicked everything from the real Zuck, be it his facial features to voice tone, to a great extent. This not just shows how fast this kind of tech is progressing but also highlights how harmful it can be.