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Do Androids Dream Of Princess Of Wales? | Deepfake Watch
Browser View | March 29, 2024 | Subscribe
Is it really Princess Kate, or an algorithm’s impression of her? Were those girls really playing Holi inside the Delhi Metro, or was that video a deepfake? Is that influencer you’re crushing on real, or is it a non-existent AI avatar?
We are all perplexed, and pardon us if this week’s newsletter leaves you just as much so.
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What’s In A Face?
All the boys are falling in love with her, one reel at a time.
Ira Sharma has over 250,000 followers on Instagram. Her reels usually show her posing for the camera in various outfits, highlighting her cuteness.
Except that her face is not real. She does not exist.
Karen Rebelo investigated this fascinating profile for Decode, and found that the videos are very much real. They’ve been stolen from the profiles of other female influencers, but face-swapped with the AI-generated, fictitious face of Ira Sharma.
Advertising industry observer Karthik Srinivasan calls this “inventive plagiarism”. Speaking to Decode, he said, “...here it's not just content being downloaded and passed on but the content is almost taken like a white label and repackaged with a new face. The only difference is that the new face doesn't exist. It’s an AI entity.”
Sorry boys!
A curious case of “AI or real”: Royal Edition
The subject line for this week’s newsletter is a nerdy reference to a sci-fi novel by Philip K. Dick titled, “Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?” The book shot to popularity after it was adapted into a film by Ridley Scott titled “Blade Runner”.
It follows a detective (Harrison Ford) tasked with hunting down a group of bio-engineered synthetic humans called Replicants. As he takes them out one-by-one, he starts doubting whether he is a Replicant himself.
While we are not yet dealing with advanced synthetic humanoid beings, many of us may have had similar doubts about the nature of reality recently.
I’m talking of Kate, Princess of Wales, future Queen of England. After the botched-up photo of the Princess released by the Royal Family, which was retracted by major news agencies citing manipulation, many cried “AI-generated!”.
But experts stated that it was more likely to be Photoshop than AI. Then, the Royal Family released an entire video statement of Kate, where she announces her cancer diagnosis. Again, conspiracy theorists went on overdrive.
Here are a few samples:
“shes definitely fucking dead, her ring fucking DISAPPEARS this video is literally deepfaked”
“Kate Middleton’s Cancer Is Psy-Op To Normalize Turbo Cancer Depopulation Event”
“ there is a high probability she has Turbo Cancer, caused by COVID-19 mRNA Vaccines she took in 2021”
They started ‘breaking down’ the video and pointing out any inconsistencies as evidence of it being a deepfake.
IIT Jodhpur professor Mayank Vatsa and his team conducted a forensic analysis of the video, and found no evidence of AI being used. “The development in Generative AI illustrates an intriguing trend: even real content is now under the microscope. This highlights the complex landscape of digital authenticity we navigate today,” he wrote in a LinkedIn post.
A curious case of “AI Or Real”: Delhi Metro edition
Last Sunday, a video went viral showing two girls playing Holi inside a Delhi Metro train, dancing suggestively to Bollywood song “Ang Laga De”.
After Indian social media exploded with discussions around the song, and whether it was appropriate to have shot that in public transportation, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) joined the conversation, and made it a lot worse.
DMRC’s initial statement to the press indicated that “deepfake technology may have been used” to make the video.
BOOM’s fact-checker Srijit Das investigated the video and found it to be real. He got in touch with those involved in shooting the video, including the actors, who confirmed that the video was real.
Furthermore, Srijit also found a video of the same incident taken by another passenger, showing the exact same scenario from a different angle.
Mayank Vatsa’s team also analysed the video and found it to be genuine.
A curious case of “AI Or Real”: US edition
A video showing a woman talking about how to tackle body odour hit the internet recently, and caught everyone’s attention. And it wasn’t because of her hygiene tips.
Several social media users started claiming that the very realistic video was 100% AI-generated.
AI video maker ArcadsAI came out publicly to acknowledge that their tools have been used to generate the said video. So, is this another non-existent face like Ira Sharma?
Some other social media users dug out a Fiverr account of an individual with the exact same likeness. Her name is Ariel Marie.
So is that video really AI? Are AI companies stealing real videos and passing them off as AI-generated?
We got in touch with the real Ariel Marie who helped demystify the whole situation. She told us that she consented to Arcads using her likeness to make the video of the lady in the car.
“The person in that video is me! It's an AI model of my likeness and voice. I sent Arcads a video of myself through a Fiverr order and they used it to make an AI version of me,” she said.
So those claiming it's 100% AI-generated are definitely wrong. The face is real, the rest isn’t.
Pills And Putin
Innovative scammers are exploiting AI in novel ways pretty much every other day now.
An investigation by the Washington Post revealed that ordinary people are finding their faces being stolen and misused to sell ideas and products they would not want to associate themselves with.
“With just a few seconds of footage, scammers can now combine video and audio using tools from companies like HeyGen and Eleven Labs to generate a synthetic version of a real person’s voice, swap out the sound on an existing video, and animate the speaker’s lips — making the doctored result more believable,” the report read.
According to the article, unsuspecting folks on the internet are finding videos of themselves selling erectile dysfunction pills, or praising Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Have you been a victim of AI?
Have you been scammed by AI-generated videos or audio clips? Did you spot AI-generated nudes of yourself on the internet?
Decode is trying to document cases of abuse of AI, and would like to hear from you. If you are willing to share your experience, do reach out to us at [email protected]. Your privacy is important to us, and we shall preserve your anonymity.
About Decode and Deepfake Watch
Deepfake Watch is an initiative by Decode, dedicated to keeping you abreast of the latest developments in AI and its potential for misuse. Our goal is to foster an informed community capable of challenging digital deceptions and advocating for a transparent digital environment.
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