Do you remember this video of Donald Trump advising the Belgian people about climate change? Just one example of a deepfake.

Nowadays anyone with the right technology can combine and superimpose existing images and videos onto source images or videos. Deepfakes are becoming more realistic and easier to produce, offering forgery that is qualitatively different from anything we have seen before. It has been described as “fake news on steroids”. The potential to skew information and manipulate the beliefs of online communities is immense, and immensely worrying. What about building confidence with the deep fakes rising? In whom do we trust?

During the CONNECT University session on "Exploring Deepfakes phenomena", Boris Radanović – Engagement and Partnership Manager for the UK Safer Internet Centre – explained how the "generative adversarial network" (GAN) technique became an easily available software, that is being widely used to generate deepfakes. Denis Teyssou, journalist leading Agence France-Presse (AFP) Medialab and the innovation manager of InVID and WeVerify Horizon 2020 projects showcased how the InVID free verification plugin can help to source a deepfake video and identify the original images used to produce it. A discussion followed on how this challenge should be addressed. Can the machine learning that produces deepfakes be easily reversed to detect them, what kind of tools can be developed, or is user awareness the key?

Watch the recording and find more about the phenomena of deepfakes. 

Agenda:

11:00-11:05 Welcome by Florin Lupescu, Principal Adviser, Dean of the CONNECT University

11:05-11:20 Introduction by June Lowery-Kingston, HoU DG CONNECT G3, Accessibility, Multilingualism and Safer Internet

11:20-11:45 Presentation by Boris Radanović, Engagement and Partnership Manager for the UK Safer Internet Centre

11:45-12:10 Presentation by Denis Teyssou, Agence France-Presse (AFP), Medialab R&D editorial manager, InVID & WeVerify EU projects’ innovation manager

12:10-12:35 Questions & Answers session

12:35-12:50 Tackling disinformation through H2020 funding by Anni Hellman dHoU DG CONNECT I4, Media Convergence and Social Media

12:50-13:00 Closing remarks by June Lowery-Kingston, HoU DG CONNECT G3 and Paolo Cesarini HoU DG CONNECT I4