Say What?
by Miki Saxon
Every day seems to bring more bad news from the AI front.
Google gives away tools for DIY AI, with no consideration for who uses them or for what.
One result is the proliferation of deepfakes.
Now scientists from Stanford University, the Max Planck Institute for Informatics, Princeton University, and Adobe Research are making faking it even simpler.
In the latest example of deepfake technology, researchers have shown off new software that uses machine learning to let users edit the text transcript of a video to add, delete, or change the words coming right out of somebody’s mouth.
The result is that almost anyone can make anyone say anything.
Just type in the new script.
Adobe, of course, plans to consumerize the tech, with a focus on how to generate the best revenue stream from it.
It’s not their problem how it will be used or by whom.
Yet another genii out of the box and out of control.
You can’t believe what you read; you can’t believe what you read or hear; it’s been ages since you could believe pictures, and now you won’t be able to believe videos you see.
All thanks to totally amoral tech.
Werner Vogels, Amazon’s chief technology officer, spelled out tech’s attitude in no uncertain terms.
It’s in society’s direction to actually decide which technology is applicable under which conditions.
“It’s a societal discourse and decision – and policy-making – that needs to happen to decide where you can apply technologies.”
Decisions and policies that happen long after the tech is deployed — if at all.
Welcome to the future.
Image credit: Marion Paul Baylado
