Deepfakes

OK, so Ben's explained to us what deep fakes are and how they're made.

But what about how they're used? You often hear about the ways that they use to like trick and deceive people.

But I'm wondering, are there any positive ways that they can be used?

I remember going to the cinema to see this film called Star Wars Rogue One.

I think that was back in 2016.

And for people who aren't so interested in Star Wars, this film was positioned to be like the backstory to the first Star Wars film, Episode IV, which was released, I think, in the 70s.

So definitely like 40 years before Rogue One was created.

Now, for some characters in the film, it didn't really matter that they had different actors, like Darth Vader, who wears a cape and a mask.

But for the actors we wanted to see the face of that existed in both films, for example, Princess Leia, she appeared in this Rogue One film looking exactly and sounding exactly like she did in this film from the 1970s.

So for me, that was a really cool use of deepfake technology.

That's interesting.

I'm a massive Star Wars fan and Rogue One is actually one of my favorite films in the whole series.

And I remember being blown away by the special effects when I saw it, but I'd never actually considered it as an example of deep fake technology until now.

Yeah, that makes total sense, actually.

I'm guessing that films are really one area where deep fakes can really sort of be used to also make loads of different effects, like de-aging actors or bringing characters back to life in ways perhaps that wouldn't have been possible before.

Exactly.

Though I guess in those instances, people know that what they're watching isn't real.

We're looking at fictional characters here.

But when deepfake technology is used to recreate real people, then it can get a bit darker, a bit murkier.

So

how can we

tell the difference?

Well, Michael, I think it's time we brought in our next expert.