Microsoft has unveiled a video detection tool aimed at spotting computer-manipulated images, aka deepfakes, just 60 days ahead of the 2020 presidential election.
Microsoft’s Video Authenticator flags fake news clips and lets news outlets and political campaigns watermark content to prove authenticity. The technology works by “detecting the blending boundary of the deepfake and subtle fading or greyscale elements that might not be detectable to the human eye,” Microsoft wrote in a blog post.
The company is making the tool available to organizations involved in the democratic process this year, including news outlets and political campaigns.
The amount of deepfake content online is growing rapidly and the U.S. is the most targeted country, according to startup Sensity.
In 2018, a video of former President Barack Obama purportedly showed him using an expletive to describe President Donald Trump. Last year, an internet user created a video of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg saying the social media giant’s goal is to manipulate and exploit its users.
“The rise of deepfakes as another form of impersonation, deception and manipulation requires that we either have to train people to get really good at detecting threats, or we have to rely on a layer of technology to detect them,” Tim Sadler, CEO and co-founder of cybersecurity company Tessian, told Fox News. “I think the only realistic way to mitigate the risk of deepfakes at scale is through technology.”Related Stories:
- Ethics Panel Warns House Members Against ‘Deepfake’ Posts
- Appeals Court Upholds 4 Convictions for Ex-Congressional Staffer
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