TED 2018: Fake Obama video creator defends invention

["Dave Farber" <farber () gmail com>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
> Date: April 13, 2018 at 7:42:28 AM EDT
> To: Multiple recipients of Dewayne-Net <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
> Subject: [Dewayne-Net] TED 2018: Fake Obama video creator defends invention
> Reply-To: dewayne-net () warpspeed com
>
> TED 2018: Fake Obama video creator defends invention
> A researcher who created a fake video of President Obama has defended his invention at the latest TED talks.
> By Jane Wakefield
> Apr 13 2018
> <http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-43639704>
>
> The clip shows a computer-generated version of the former US leader mapped to fit an audio recording. Experts have 
> warned the tech involved could spark a "political crisis".
>
> Dr Supasorn Suwajanakorn acknowledged that there was a "potential for misuse".
>
> But, at the Vancouver event, he added the tech could be a force for good.
>
> The computer engineer is now employed by Google's Brain division. He is also working on a tool to detect fake videos 
> and photos on behalf of the AI Foundation.
>
> Damage risk
>
> Dr Suwajanakon, along with colleagues Steven Seitz and Ira Kemelmacher-Shlizerman from the University of Washington, 
> released a paper in July 2017 describing how they created the fake Obama.
>
> They developed an algorithm that took audio and transposed it on to a 3D model of the president's face.
>
> The task was completed by a neural network, using 14 hours of Obama speeches and layering that data on top of a basic 
> mouth shape.
>
> Dr Suwajanakorn acknowledged that "fake videos can do a lot of damage" and needed an ethical framework.
>
> "The reaction to our work was quite mixed. People, such as graphic designers, thought it was a great tool. But it was 
> also very scary for other people," he told the BBC.
>
> Political crisis
>
> It could offer history students the chance to meet and interview Holocaust victims, he said. Another example would be 
> to let people create avatars of dead relatives.
>
> Experts remain concerned that the technology could create new types of propaganda and false reports.
>
> "Fake news tends to spread faster than real news as it is both novel and confirms existing biases," said Dr Bernie 
> Hogan, a senior research fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute.
>
> "Seeing someone make fake news with real voices and faces, as seen in the recent issue about deepfakes, will likely 
> lead to a political crisis with associated calls to regulate the technology."
>
> Deepfakes refers to the recent controversy over an easy-to-use software tool that scans photographs and then uses 
> them to substitute one person's features with another. It has been used to create hundreds of pornographic video 
> clips featuring celebrities' faces.
>
> Dr Suwajanakorn said that while fake videos were a new phenomenon, it was relatively easy to detect forgeries.
>
> [snip]
>
> Dewayne-Net RSS Feed: http://dewaynenet.wordpress.com/feed/
> Twitter: https://twitter.com/wa8dzp



-------------------------------------------
Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now
Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=18849915&id_secret=18849915-4ac2c253
Unsubscribe Now: 
https://www.listbox.com/unsubscribe/?member_id=18849915&id_secret=18849915-a538de84&post_id=20180413075009:CF070C84-3F10-11E8-9907-BF00C8DCA226
Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com