State of Deepfake Applications 2022

Deepfake technology has experienced a dramatic evolution over the past decade. These advancements have given way to the technology’s growing popularity in multiple industries, including entertainment, movies, marketing, healthcare, and customer service.?Whether it serves as an assisting technology or for spreading disinformation, the usage of deepfake isn’t without its own set of questions and concerns.?

Here are five examples of how this controversial technology is utilized in 2022.

Cheap Fakes are making the case

From the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian war, Russian cybercriminals launched a campaign of creating manipulative videos to spread disinformation across the international media landscape. One such example was a video of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy telling the Ukrainian national army to surrender.?

From the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian war, Russian cybercriminals launched a campaign of creating manipulative videos to spread disinformation across the international media landscape.

The video was circulated at the beginning of March and, despite its poor quality, was able to convince many people to go along with its message. The naked eye can see how poorly made the video is: its creators synthesized an inadequate voice, attached the head crookedly, and did not even use the right color for the president's clothes. The Ukrainian president's body barely moved as he spoke while his voice was distorted.?

"I ask you to lay down your weapons and go back to your families," he says. "This war is not worth dying for. I suggest you keep on living, and I am going to do the same."

A few days later, Meta removed this video from its platforms. But Ukraine was ready for this deepfake. The special services had sent out warnings about videos like it long before it was made. However, the low quality of the video turned out to be a surprise.

Video calls with the mayor of Kyiv

Another Ukraine war deepfake that was more successful in achieving its goal arrived in June. It featured the mayors of Berlin, Madrid, Vienna, Budapest, and Warsaw speaking via video calls with Vitali Klitschko, mayor of Kyiv. Or at least they believed they were speaking to him.

Two of the European mayors spoke with the supposed Ukrainian mayor for over 20 minutes and suspected something was wrong because of the line of questioning coming from the Ukrainian mayor, not because of how he looked or sounded.?

The mayor of Berlin was surprised that Klitschko asked for permission to speak in Russian with a simultaneous translation into German. The former boxing world champion lived in Hamburg for many years, so he speaks German fluently.

However, the first 15 minutes were quite ordinary: "We saw Vitaliy Klitschko on the screen. He talked, laughed, and moved like Klitschko. Nothing indicated that Vitaliy Klitschko was not in front of us," Bild told the Berlin City Hall press service.

The burgomaster of the Austrian capital did not suspect anything either. And after what seemed like a successful meeting, announced it on social media. The heads of Madrid and Budapest were more vigilant and ended their calls earlier.?

A teenager asking for help in solving his own murder

This case proved that deepfakes can be used to benefit society.?

13-year-old Sedar Soares was shot dead outside a metro station in the city of Rotterdam in 2003. Almost ten years later, the perpetrators have not been found.?

In order to motivate people with information about Soares’ murder, police in the Netherlands used deepfake technology to create a video in the hope of solving the case.

In the video, Soares greets the camera and walks through a lane formed by family, friends, and teammates of his football team. He is telling the audience the story of his death and asks for more information: "Do you know more? Then speak now".

Police hope the video will "touch hearts" and convince witnesses to provide more information. Officers already began to receive numerous tips just a few days after the video was posted on YouTube.

This is the first time deepfake technology has been used in a murder investigation.

Arising the importance of sustainability. So is it good or bad?

Rapid growth and rising demand for deepfakes are always accompanied by active discussions about the ethical use of new technologies.?

As I work in Emmy award vice clung technology Respeecher since the start of the war. And it is another extremely powerful story how to onboarding while preparing contingency plans in the case of war for the major Ukrainian companies.

What I want to highlight here is the other side of synthetic media and deepfakes. While we at Respeeecher use it to revolutionize movies, video games, and other creative projects, it can also be used to trick people into thinking someone said or did something they didn't.?

In addition to purely technical measures, including developing algorithms for deepfake identification and voice watermarking, Respeecher is working to democratize and educate the market. And I'm fully committed to this mission, so We have launched the Synthetic Media Working Ground at the Digital Entertainment Group. DEG advocates and promotes entertainment platforms, products and distribution channels which support the movie, television, audio, consumer electronics and IT industries.

In June, we also started cooperating with the Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI). The CAI, led by Adobe, is a community of over 750 members across the media, digital content, and tech industries working to promote the adoption of an open industry standard for ensuring content authenticity and originality. Respeecher's part in this community involves addressing misinformation by verifying the origin of digital content.

Yet what I believe more personally and bringing it to Respeecher is that making the technology legible and accessible to as many businesses and creative projects as possible as protecting the community from scammers and future unethical use.

Let's believe in the technology has we believe that the good prevails evil.