I’m not talking about basketball. I’m talking about a concept known as “deepfakes”. The term comes from combining the concept of “deep learning” with the word “fakes”. It’s one of the latest emerging technologies to burst onto the scene, and you should be worried about it.

We all know the old sayings about not believing something unless you see it with your own eyes, right? Heck, a whole state has a motto around it. Missouri is the “Show-Me State”. Missourians are proud of their reputation of not being gullible, requiring hard evidence before they believe anything. Way to go, Missouri. You guys are smart – smarter than most of the rest of us. Too bad technology is coming along to level the playing field.

In a nutshell, here’s what deepfake technology does. It uses source images, existing videos and artificial intelligence to create videos of anyone saying or doing anything the wielder of the technology desires. Yep. Someone could post a convincing video of you online wherein you can be heard (and seen, mind you) spouting all sorts of self-incriminating and wholly embarrassing things. I can tell by the way you are raising your left eyebrow as you read this that you don’t believe me. I was expecting that. Take a look at the video linked below. It’s an interview spot from Conan O’Brien’s late-night talk show. Bill Hader is doing impressions of Al Pacino and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Watch Bill’s face as he transitions from his own voice to that of one of the celebrities. The Pacino scenes are creepy enough, but if you don’t get a giant case of the willies around the 2:20 mark, then you have anti-freeze for blood.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjI-JaRWG7s&t=26s

The video you just watched is pure entertainment. It’s weird but harmless. It’s funny. Bill Hader is doing impressions. It’s amusing to make it look like the real celebrities’ faces are doing the talking. I know from watching your previously raised eyebrow lower itself to join its twin in a furrowed scowl that you are already thinking about what I am about to write.

This is dangerous.

Quick, pick your favorite politician. Yeah, I know. That’s a tough one. It’s kind of like saying, “Quick, pick your favorite infectious disease.” Let me put it another way. Pick your least hated politician. Got it? Now, think about all the times people have posted unflattering remarks, accusations and other attacks toward this person. You leap to your keyboard. You furiously type, your fingers (or thumbs, if you are using your phone) flying across the landscape of letters as you fire back in defense of your hero. There’s no way they said or did the things your online foe is claiming. It’s just hearsay, you say. Let me play it out for you using one of my own fictitious characters from my second novel.

OldSchoolChum: True to form, I heard where Efrem Kozlov was talking about drowning kittens and eating worms! That’s just like that scumbag. If he thinks he’s going to get elected to city council doing crap like that, he’s got another thing coming!
You: Fake news! You know as well as I do that people will say anything to keep him from being elected just because he has a Russian name. Kozlov’s a good man. He’s just misunderstood. He’s got dreams and goals. I know I’m voting for him.
OldSchoolChum: Goals. Ha! He’s got goals all right. He wants to tear down our whole system of democracy. He intends to undermine everything this country stands for.
You: People say that about him all the time. It’s not true. I’m telling you; he never has said anything like that. And – I’ll bet he would never even lick a worm, let alone eat one.
OldSchoolChum: Oh yeah? Well look at this!

Following that last jab, OldSchoolChum pastes a link to a YouTube video in the post. You click it. To your horror, there stands the very man you have been defending with your posts. As your jaw swings loosely from your face like a rusty “Rooms for Rent” sign out in front of the Hotel Reality, you watch in horror as the following monologue plays out …

Efrem Kozlov: Hello everyone! I’m Efrem Kozlov.
You (silently inside your head): Well, that’s him all right.
Efrem Kozlov: I just want to say that it sure is fun drowning kittens. It’s the best way to undermine the American way of life. By the way, worms sure are delicious.

You reload the YouTube page a few times and gasp in disbelief as the view counter rises to a thousand, ten thousand, a hundred thousand, and beyond. Comments start pouring in. The collective bile from the hatred of countless viewers fills the page with rage and scorn. Your heart sinks. How could this be? You believed this guy. You were going to vote for him. Your whole worldview is now a distorted.

That’s the key word – distorted.

The video, it turns out, is fake. The original video was made by someone impersonating Kozlov’s voice while saying the offensive things. Later, images of the real Kozlov were fed into a computer program which mapped your hero’s face onto the face of the person in the video. The result is that it really looks like Kozlov is talking about kittens, worms, and tearing American culture apart.

The worst part about a hoax like this is that it really doesn’t matter whether the piece is grounded in reality. The internet is a swift and vicious judge, jury and executioner. A reputation can be lost in a matter of hours. Rebuilding it with cold, hard facts can be a long and tedious process, if it’s even possible. Cold, hard facts are boring. Sensational and potentially damning videos are fun. It’s a lot easier to run with the latter than the former.

People who work in the entertainment industry fawn over the potential for deepfake technology as a way to produce movies and television shows depicting historic figures as though they were still alive. I can see that. It would be a lot more engaging to watch a realistically animated Abraham Lincoln deliver the Gettysburg Address than it would be to see some actor made up to approximate Honest Abe. So yeah, the technology is not without merit. It could be used for some good. My gut tells me it will be a lot more profitable to use it for bad. Deepfake tech is here. It’s still a bit immature. Pay attention to what you watch online. If you look very, very closely, you can usually spot the fakes – for now.

This article was written by Tilmer Wright, Jr. Tilmer is an IT professional with over thirty years of experience wrestling with technology and a proud member of the Authors Guild of Tennessee. In his spare time, he writes books. His second novel, The Bit Dance is a cautionary tale about what can happen when technology runs away from its creators. You can find links to Tilmer’s books at the following location: https://www.amazon.com/Tilmer-Wright/e/B00DVKGG4K%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_s…

His author information web site is here: http://www.tilmerwrightjr.com/