Did you see the recent âdeepfakeâ of Elon Musk? [RiskHedge Report] A disturbing trend in online video [Chris Reilly] By Chris Reilly - RiskHedge Fake Elon Musk wants to scam you. In a widely shared âdeepfakeâ video, the billionaire Tesla founder appeared to be promoting a new way to earn extra money in crypto. [Time-Sensitive] According to RiskHedge Chief Analyst Stephen McBride, this crypto will have its first-ever Triple Halving as soon as September 15. For reasons we'll show you, this Triple Halving is like all three of bitcoin's halving events added together. Now investors like you stand to gain. [Discover the one move you need to make today.]( It was a total scam. Musk had nothing to do with the video. But it fooled plenty of people. Musk would set the record straight on Twitter saying it was âdef[initely] not me.â Deepfake videos are fake but realistic-looking videos created using artificial intelligence technology. They can make it look like anyone is saying or doing anything⦠and theyâre increasingly being used to fool people online. If you find this disturbing⦠youâre not alone. From "catfishingâ to Nigerian princes, the internet has always been used to scam certain people. But until recently, video was the one thing that couldnât be easily falsified. Thanks to rapidly advancing technology, thatâs changed for good. And itâs opened up a new can of worms. Could deepfakes fool you? Could they swing an election? Today, tech expert Chris Wood sheds light on deepfakes, including how investors should think about this trend⦠*** Chris Reilly: Chris⦠what were your initial thoughts on the viral deepfake video of Elon Musk? Chris Wood: The quality wasnât even that good. If a low-quality deepfake like that can go viral and convince anyone thatâs Elon Musk talking, thatâs scary. Because the good deepfakes produced today are much better and more convincing⦠and theyâre only getting better and easier to produce every day. Reilly: Can you shed some light on the tech behind deepfakes? Wood: The term âdeepfakeâ comes from a combination of the terms âdeep learningâ and âfake.â Deep learning is a term from the artificial intelligence (AI) world. Itâs a way to teach computers to learn like people do. To make a deepfake video you âtrainâ a computer with images and videos of a famous person and an actor. The computer learns how to seamlessly swap the actorâs face for the famous personâs face in a video. It also learns to perfectly match the actorâs facial expressions. So, with deepfakes you can make anyone appear to say and do just about anything. Last year a series of pretty convincing Tom Cruise deepfakes went viral on TikTok. [Hereâs a link to them](. Reilly: Where is this trend headed? Wood: Unfortunately, deepfakes are growing exponentially. A study I read last year reported the number of deepfake videos online doubled every six months from 2018 through 2020. And that pace has picked up since then. In addition to those famous deepfake Tom Cruise videos, which racked up tens of millions of views, weâve seen viral deepfakes showing Metaâs (formerly Facebook) founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg giving a sinister speech about Facebook having âtotal control of billions of peopleâs stolen data.â And Barrack Obama calling Donald Trump a four-letter word. Meanwhile, as the technology advances, these videos are going to spread like wildfire. Like most powerful technologies, it can be used for good, bad, and in between. For the bad guys out there, itâs too tempting not to weaponize. Reilly: So far it seems like these videos are doing more harm than good⦠Are there any positives to deepfake videos? Wood: Absolutely. Think of education. We could create deepfakes of historical figures like Abraham Lincoln and animate their speeches to bring history to life for students. This tech is also showing a ton of promise in the advertising and film industries. In fact, the guys who made the Tom Cruise deepfakes launched a company called Metaphysic last year. It uses the same deepfake tech to make otherwise impossible ads and restore old films. One of Metaphysicâs deepfake projects was a Gillette campaign that recreated a young NFL player Deion Sanders shaving with a Gillette razor on his draft day in 1989. Metaphysic envisions using deepfakes to do everything from making older entertainers appear younger⦠to creating video doubles of famous people. These videos can be used to make commercials and other contentâwithout them needing to be physically on set. Reilly: What are the big-picture implications? Should readers be worried about deepfakes? Could they, for example, swing an election? Wood: Good question. Some analysts think that as deepfakes spread, most folks will lose all trust in digital media. That would be a massive problem. But I think these analysts are shortsighted. Folks must learn to think more critically about what they see online. And yes, itâs possible deepfakes could become a big problem. But lots of solutions will come as well. Thatâs what always happens in tech. Reilly: What sort of solutions are out there? Are there ways to invest in them? Wood: Yes, certainly on the security side. Companies that create software able to verify photos and videos to bust deepfakes could be great investments. A startup called Truepic developed a software platform to help do just that. Its tech can figure out whatâs authentic in a digital photo or video and what (if anything) has been manipulated. Truepic provides its tech to more than 100 customers already. Insurance companies, for example, use it to screen smartphone photos sent in from an accident. Truepic is still private. But itâs received funding from some big, prominent investors including Microsoftâs venture capital arm. More and more companies will be developing solutions like these, and surely some of those companies will go public. The space is too new for a public investor to put money to work today. But a lot of exciting opportunities are coming down the pike. Chris Reilly
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