Today’s inspiration comes from an article I’ve had saved in My Pocket* for a while. This video of AI generated people (fully clothed bodies) is incredible. Perhaps zoomed in and slower you could spot the errors, but in real time speed as videos normally are, this could be monumental. Having also seen some recent deep fakes that were pretty fun and discernible, here’s an example of Bill Hader/Tom Cruise. However, when used in a more serious way the implications are serious. So some brief food for thought.
The hordes of media consumers are already notoriously bad at looking up sources, verifying facts and stories they hear, etc.. When videos are easily manipulated, videos will need to be verified with much stricter rules to avoid mass panic, unfair accusations, etc.. with PROOF….at least visual proof. How would a jury rule on a video that makes someone look guilty when that video is indeed a fake. Perhaps this will lead to AI analyzing of video to determine whether it’s real or not, and thus the tech wars continue (think a higher stakes version of the game AdBlocker’s and media companies do now).
*If you don’t use this browser extension already, it’s extremely helpful. It’s like a favorites folder but that’s more convenient, accessible, and has some more features as well. For people like me who get articles from all over, especially on massive platforms like Twitter, Reddit, or Medium it’s easy to get a reading list that’s 50 deep. To manage all of those, it’s nice to have one place to put everything, of all media types, where I can pick and choose what to read or watch when I have time. Also you can archive and favorite things you don’t want appearing but don’t want to lose forever. If that sounds interesting, check it out here: https://app.getpocket.com/
Side note: today is the 16th anniversary of my Bar Mitzvah — don’t know why I thought of that, but time flies I guess.