How To Spot Fake Videos On The Internet

With recent developments in emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence-based Image Synthesis has bestowed machines with powerful capabilities to create photos and videos of real world and with precision that would have appeared impossible few years back. While the amazing uses of this technology have just started to explode, the Fake Video trends shows us that vicious use of this type of techniques is around the corner.

Thanks to Machine Learning that have now made it possible to swap someone else’s face and voice into a video. These fake videos are called “deepfake” and they’re truly getting better day by day. The concept is quite clean, transfer the face of a person A to a video of person B, manipulating facial expressions and body movements that make people struggle to tell the difference between fake and real.

A famous video of Barack Obama went viral last year where you see the former president addressing the camera and if you turn off the sound you will not even realize it’s fake.

 

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Tips To Detect Fake Videos on The Internet

Was that unusual video real or fake? How could you tell? Well, these tips will help you to analyze if a video is fake.

1. Be skeptical

Whenever you see something that is sufficiently out of the ordinary to make you want to pass it on, ask yourself ‘Is this real?’. There are plenty of unusual videos which seems incredible but are original and perfectly normal phenomena. So, don’t forget to Google if there are other examples of the same or have any news coverage. Answer questions like ‘Do you trust the site on which you’re looking the fake video?’ Or ‘Journalists who have covered the video are caveating their write-ups with phrases like “appears to be”?

2. Check for lip-syncing and no sound

Though the Deep Fake software is too sophisticated, but it’s only capable of adjusting facial features, it doesn’t impersonate a person sound like another. It’s tough to match the intricacies of speech. Even in the fake video of former president Barack Obama, there was trouble with his ‘P’ sounds. Check out the video to identify!

3. Online Researching is quintessential

Investigate whether there have been previous, authenticated and real-world instances of subject have happened or not. For example, if you see a video of shape-shifting cuttlefish, do search & re-search about it to verify if it’s actually a thing or not. There are plenty of phenomena that you might not know exist.

4. Don’t forget to check the source

Obviously, viral videos begin from somewhere. So, try googling with video’s title to find the earliest incarnation. You can also do Google reverse image search of the thumbnail. Once you figure out the source ask yourself if the uploader’s online presence is genuine?

5. Pay attention to details

Until and unless the video is Hollywood level quality, there’s no find chance that you’ll not detect a mistake. Pay attention to background elements, like does everything move or behave in the way it’s supposed to? Observe little things that will establish the fact that the video is not real.

6. Short Videos

Although the advanced Deep Fake software works great to create almost real-look like videos. It is capable of doing it for a short duration of time. Before too long, problems like flickering, weird looking faces, bad lip syncing will start happening. That’s the reason most of the Deep Fake videos are only a couple of seconds long and rest of the footage is unusable.

7. Tool to detect fake videos

Admitted! Technology has great potential to do great and create mischief. With AI capabilities you can soon expect a tool that can help you to verify the authenticity of a video. According to Google Engineer, Suppressor Suwajanakorn is working on an application that will closely observe the content and it would run automatically in web browsers to spot and flag fake videos or pictures. The fake video checker will be known as Reality Defender app.

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Human Intelligence is the ultimate solution. So, trust your instincts but remember they’re easily deceived.  Observes signs of visual effects but don’t overthink. All these tips will surely help you to better distinguish between real and fake videos.