Media Challenge: Spot the Deepfake!

Do you remember back in 2018 when Buzzfeed introduced the world to the concept of the “deepfake” in the most dramatic way possible?

Jordan Peele’s mouth on Barack Obama’s face? The “FakeApp” software? The pat reassurance that “all it takes [to spot a deepfake] is a bit of patience and skepticism”? In retrospect, everything about Buzzfeed’s deepfake warning seems quaint.

Silly as it may have been, however—it took 56 hours of video processing and the oversight of a video effects professional to put together that rather unconvincing video, we were told—the warning itself was an apt one. As it turns out, Buzzfeed was correct to alert us to the fact that convincing deepfake videos “will get easier, cheaper, and more ubiquitous faster than you would expect” and that “an age of ubiquitous deepfakes could help usher in an ‘infocalypse.’”

Still not worried? You should be. I’m willing to bet that you’ve already been fooled by a deepfake video at some point, and the future is likely to be one in which no digital image, video or audio file can be taken at face value.

Don’t believe me? Then I invite you to take the following test . . .