Week 9- Manufactured Fictions in the Age of Instagram lecture

This weeks lecture was all about the age of Instagram which is an area that is very interesting to me and I would enjoy to research more on.  We looked at social photography, how instagram and its filters are effecting the world, fake news, and there was other topic we touched on that I had an interest to know more about- Deep Fakes.

Deep fakes

What is a deep fake?

Deep fakes are synthetic media in which a person in an existing image or video is replaced with someone else’s likeness.

The consequences of a deep fake

Deep fakes are getting harder and harder to spot nowadays and that is a frightening thought!

• Anybody who has a computer and access to the internet can technically produce a “deepfake” video.
• The technology can be used to make people believe something is real when it is not, because if done right they are so convincing.
• Deepfakes pose many potential systemic socio-political risks such as manipulation of civil discourse, interference with elections and national security.

For examples they can affect politicians in elections-

They can be used to tarnish the reputation of a political candidate by making the candidate appear to say or do things that never actually occurred. They are a powerful new tool for those who might want to use misinformation to influence an election.

Famous Deepfake examples

Tom Cruise

Paul showed us an example of the famous deep fakes of Tom Cruise that are still circulating the internet. The man on the left is the original face and the original man in the video and using AI they created a deep fake and the resemblance here is frightening I think, it really does look like Tom Cruise is doing those things in the video but it is actually the man on the left.

Barack Obama

Another example is a Barack Obama deep fake and the likeness here in this example is again just as shocking.

What did I learn?

This concept is very interesting and I enjoyed researching more into it, however this does show the seriousness and power with what a computer can achieve. I enjoyed this weeks lecture it was something very different and unlike previous content from the earlier weeks so this was a nice change! I learned a lot about stuff I hadn’t even heard of before or hadn’t thought much about so it was very refreshing.