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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsFake news is about to get even scarier than you ever dreamed
I read this a few days ago and was too freaked out to even discuss it. Talk me off the ledge, anyone?
One research paper published last year by professors at Stanford University and the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg demonstrated how technologists can record video of someone talking and then change their facial expressions in real time. The professors technology could take a news clip of, say, Vladimir Putin, and alter his facial expressions in real time in hard-to-detect ways. In fact, in this video demonstrating the technology, the researchers show how they did manipulate Putins facial expressions and responses, among those of other people, too.
This is eerie, to say the least. But its only one part of the future fake-news menace. Other similar technologies have been in the works in universities and research labs for years, but they have never really pulled off what computers can do today. Take for example The Digital Emily Project, a study in which researchers created digital actors that could be used in lieu of real people. For the past several years, the results have been crude and easily detectable as digital re-creations. But technologies that are now used by Hollywood and the video-game industry have largely rendered digital avatars almost indecipherable from real people. (Go and watch the latest Star Wars to see if you can tell which actors are real and which are computer-generated. I bet you cant tell the difference.) You could imagine some political group utilizing that technology to create a fake hidden video clip of President Trump telling Rex Tillerson that he plans to drop a nuclear bomb on China. The velocity with which news clips spread across social media would also mean that the administration would have frightfully little time to respond before a fake-news story turned into an international crisis.
Audio advancements may be just as harrowing. At its annual developers conference, in November, Adobe showed off a new product that has been nicknamed Photoshop for audio. The product allows users to feed about ten to 20 minutes of someones voice into the application and then allows them to type words that are expressed in that exact voice. The resultant voice, which is comprised of the persons phonemes, or the distinct units of sound that distinguish one word from another in each language, doesnt sound even remotely computer-generated or made up. It sounds real.
Read the rest here.
guillaumeb
(42,641 posts)I am climbing up to join you.
Dark n Stormy Knight
(9,760 posts)And some room might clear out any minute if we don't calm down.
burrowowl
(17,641 posts)Dark n Stormy Knight
(9,760 posts)Right???? Anybody?
WheelWalker
(8,955 posts)Dark n Stormy Knight
(9,760 posts)Although, it's going to take a lot of convincing!
uncle ray
(3,156 posts)perhaps analog video will make a comeback. it happened with audio, vinyl LPs now outsell CDs. different reasons of course, but down the road we may see it happen with video because you can't fake analog.
Dark n Stormy Knight
(9,760 posts)verifiable analog?
uncle ray
(3,156 posts)later generations could be transmitted digitall after conversion as long as the official record was on film. hair-brained. but we're entering weird times.y
Dark n Stormy Knight
(9,760 posts)not so much. I guess there's always someone out there who will exploit the good for their own nefarious purposes, and I love modern technology, but I'm not sure it's working out for us all that well.
Runningdawg
(4,516 posts)on SC show last night, but I am going to borrow a quote from him that fits perfectly here. (paraphrasing)
I did a lot of hallucinogens in my youth. I thought by visiting a variety of possible realities I would be prepared for anything in the future. NOTHING PREPARED ME FOR THIS SHIT.
Dark n Stormy Knight
(9,760 posts)Rhiannon12866
(205,328 posts)The real news has already been surreal and frightening enough for me. I missed Lewis Black last night since the 12am edition of Rachel Maddow was live. I'm sorry now that I missed him (he was excellent on The Daily Show recently), but if I'd seen him, I may not have slept at all...
Dark n Stormy Knight
(9,760 posts)I know you're all busy, but please read.
Will kick again later if I get back here.
Response to Dark n Stormy Knight (Original post)
Dark n Stormy Knight This message was self-deleted by its author.