Reporter and Documentary Maker for the @BBC. Committee @nextgenlondon. Ambassador @PressPadUK. Welsh 
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A video showing Boris Johnson endorsing Jeremy Corbyn for Prime Minister has just landed online, another shows Corbyn backing Johnson.
Confused? Well they’re deep fakes created by @futureadvocacy & I’ve been behind the scenes for the making of them for @VictoriaLIVE >pic.twitter.com/N5uvwsZAFU
Think tank @futureadvocacy says deep fakes are a threat to democracy and that British politicians are leaving it to tech companies to deal with.
They've created these videos to highlight the problem. The full story on @VictoriaLIVE this morning.pic.twitter.com/N5uvwsZAFU
The videos were created by @BrandalismUK - artist Bill Posters - who was behind the Mark Zuckerberg and Kim Kardashian deep fakes released earlier this year.
More here:https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/technology-50381728/the-fake-video-where-johnson-and-corbyn-appear-to-endorse-each-other?intlink_from_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.co.uk%2Fnews%2Ftechnology&link_location=live-reporting-map …
You can watch the behind the scenes report in full here:https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07tqlt4 …
Surprisingly obvious these were fakes
The voices are obviously wonky. Voice accuracy is already here. Maybe they don't want a version that would be more realistic going viral, thereby making their point for them.
These videos are not ‘deepfakes’. They’re regular videos overdubbed with voice actors/impressionists who sound a little like the originals but nowhere near enough to be convincing. Also, their lips don’t sync to the words which ‘deepfakes’ do.
But the point is that many people will still be hooked in by them. Think of the annual "Morrisons/Tesco/Asda will give you £50 in shopping vouchers if you share this" posts that people share without checking. Close enough is good enough to a lot of people, sadly.
If you're commenting saying it's obvious then you're missing the point. These videos, with more money/time, would comfortably con a portion of the public. Especially those less tech savvy. If just 5% of the population believed one of these that's over 3mil.
The voices were poor but the images good enough. I think the voices were actors but I've heard voice technology that replicated Obamas voice very closely and that was a year or two ago. US presidents weekly address is public domain/copyright free. So great for testing on
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Catrin Nye
