Mumbai: As if the nuisance of fake news was not enough, the internet has now thrown up a new threat in the form of 'deepfake' news. Cyberexperts inform, deepfake is the new frontier in fake news, where artificial intelligence (AI) can be used to make any person say or do anything on video. The deepfake mobile/desktop application uses AI to superimpose nude images of women on top of real images, resulting in the creation of thousands of fake, non- consensual obscene images.
According to police sources, digital fakery is not new — we know photos can be morphed, videos can be edited. Face-swapping technology is not new either. But now, with deepfake applications, these tricks can be automated and the tools are accessible to more. "Since the term 'deepfake' was coined, the technology has consistently been used to target women. People can use deepfakes to create pornographic and nude images of coworkers, friends, classmates, even family members, and the realism of this content has only increased over time," a senior state cyber official said.
Police say they have observed that the nude images created by the software are often of dubious quality and women are targeted for blackmailing and extortion in various forms. But while these images are easy to identify as fake, it does not necessarily minimise their threat or the impact they could have on people's lives, say police. A cyberexpert explained that 'deepfakes' first came into existence in 2017, after an anonymous user, 'Deepfakes', posted several explicit videos of celebrities on the internet. This controversial and increasingly dangerous technique of audio and video manipulation was used to superimpose existing images or videos of a person on another source image or video. What began as a tool to make fake celebrity pornographic videos is now being deployed as a tool to spread hoaxes and generate fake news.
Last year, television journalist Rana Ayyub found herself the victim of a deepfake porn plot that left her devastated. Someone had morphed Ayyub's face into a pornographic clip and circulated it and it appeared as though she had acted in it. This virulent attack came soon after she campaigned for justice for the Kathua rape victim.
