Deepfake, Parody Or Creativity?

If you've been sleeping for the past 2 weeks or were blipped away by Thanos, you should know that there's a new kid in cyber town, Deepfake.

Deepfake is the software that generates superb realistic face swaps, voice manipulations for the effects of entertainment. Well... of course, isn't everything started like that? Anyone, up to the president of a nation, politicians, celebrities, public figures, to even nobodies like us, is a potential target of this "malware". You could see yourselves in a video that you were never filmed. Admittedly, most of us would have thought these videos are fun to watch. However, if someone made a video of you, your identity, parts of, or your entire body without your consent, that is a violation of your rights, no matter the content.

In the past, we've mostly found Deepfake footprints in movies such as "Forest Gump" or "Star Wars". In more recent years, American actor, comedian, and filmmaker, Jordan Peele famously delivered a Deepfake video of former US President Obama. As the technique advances and becomes even more known, it is friendlier for everyday people like us to get a hold of it. Anyone with a little determination is a potential subject to chaos in society or just a quick laugh. Imagine your face or body in adult films, it's already happened to more than enough people. Imagine the culprit profit from this by selling the results, it has also just happened in Taiwan.

Facebook to ban 'deepfakes'

How should we take this issue? These superb, realistic, fake videos are not the first ones out and they sure won't be the last. When "seeing is no longer believing", would people stop seeing and believing? Yes, but we shouldn't. Let's take a step back before saying irrational things like "ban it" or "make new laws". While rules are needed, they come later.

Ever since the beginning of the information era, software engineers have always tried to do the same things as Deepfake, namely photo editor, photoshop...etc. It's just now that they've finally made something to do their work more efficiently. With deep learning, Artificial Intelligence could synthesize better lies than humans with algorithms. AI is the ghost we all help create (demand&supply). Should we be afraid of it? Some will.

Back to how to take this issue, we need to first acknowledge that technology only goes forward and as far as we go. There's no limit to our imagination, creativity, or free will. Instead of trying to stop something inevitable in vain, we ought to take the high road, be better people, start from ourselves, and don't wait.

Our identity, including face, voice, and work, is part of our property. Should someone take it for no matter the purpose, no matter funny or not, no matter what, you've got to be alerted. Once happened, notify the user, and depending on the severity of the issue, take legal actions if necessary. It's almost impossible to change a person's mind once committing but what we could do is prepare so to prevent. There will always be someone who wrongs others. We won't because we know.

#selfreflect