Generative adversarial networks (GANs) are producing some of the most realistic artificial videos we’ve ever seen. These videos are usually called “deepfakes”. Even to an experienced eye, it can be a challenge to distinguish a fabricated video from a real one, which is an extraordinary challenge in an era when the truth of what you see on the news or especially on social media is worthy of skepticism. And just in case that wasn’t unsettling enough, the algorithms just keep getting better and more accessible—which means it just keeps getting easier to make completely fake, but real-looking, videos of celebrities, politicians, and perhaps even just regular people.

Relevant links:

http://lineardigressions.com/episodes/2016/5/28/neural-nets-play-cops-and-robbers-aka-generative-adversarial-networks

http://fortune.com/2019/06/12/deepfake-mark-zuckerberg/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfREntgxmDs

https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/robotics/artificial-intelligence/will-deepfakes-detection-be-ready-for-2020

https://giorgiop.github.io/posts/2018/03/17/AI-and-digital-forgery/