Help. The political process is corrupted, full of lies and state-sponsored deep fakes. Now Microsoft's to the rescue
- Reference: 1599029886
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/09/02/microsoft_deep_fake_detection/
- Source link:
The most notable examples have seen doctored videos pushed and published through social media, including one that appears to Democratic candidate Joe Biden asleep during an interview, and another in which words were added to a journalists’ interview, again with Joe Biden, to give a completely different context.
And then there were the hundreds of Twitter accounts purportedly owned by young Black men who all decided to explain at the exact same time and in the exact same words why they had decided to switch from Democrat to Republican.
But don’t throw up your arms in despair at the corruption of the political process and the willingness of mainstream politicians to amplify lies and misinformation because here comes an information superhero, a fearless warrior, a technological defender of the truth! Yes, Microsoft has come out fighting for democracy! All is saved!
Well, in theory.
“Today, we’re announcing two new technologies to combat disinformation,” the company announced in a [1]blog post on Tuesday. “We’re announcing Microsoft Video Authenticator.”
And what, pray tell, is this snappily titled tech? “Video Authenticator can analyze a still photo or video to provide a percentage chance, or confidence score, that the media is artificially manipulated. In the case of a video, it can provide this percentage in real-time on each frame as the video plays. It works by detecting the blending boundary of the deepfake and subtle fading or greyscale elements that might not be detectable by the human eye.”
Dataset and match
It that wasn’t exciting enough, it was built using AI – yes, artificial intelligence – and everyone knows AI works flawlessly. “Video Authenticator was created using a public dataset from Face Forensic++ and was tested on the DeepFake Detection Challenge Dataset, both leading models for training and testing deepfake detection technologies,” Microsoft reveals.
OK, great, so that’s the problem with deep fakes dealt with. What else? Wait, what’s that Microsoft?
Who will save us from deepfakes? Other AIs? Humans? What about vastly hyperintelligent pandimensional beings? [2]READ MORE
“As all AI detection methods have rates of failure, we have to understand and be ready to respond to deepfakes that slip through detection methods.” Slip through? How are they going to slip through when we have the company that made Windows Vista in charge?
“We expect that methods for generating synthetic media will continue to grow in sophistication,” it notes. “Thus, in the longer term, we must seek stronger methods for maintaining and certifying the authenticity of news articles and other media. There are few tools today to help assure readers that the media they’re seeing online came from a trusted source and that it wasn’t altered.”
Great, what a waste of everyone’s time. But wait one second, I can see Satya Nadella with his hand up the back there – yes, what is it?
“Today, we’re also announcing new technology that can both detect manipulated content and assure people that the media they’re viewing is authentic.”
So how does this one work and what incredibly dull name have you created for it? “This technology has two components. The first is a tool built into Microsoft Azure that enables a content producer to add digital hashes and certificates to a piece of content.”
OK, I think I see where this is going... “The second is a reader – which can exist as a browser extension or in other forms – that checks the certificates and matches the hashes, letting people know with a high degree of accuracy that the content is authentic and that it hasn’t been changed, as well as providing details about who produced it.”
Come inside the walled garden
Right, so we can put an end to manipulated video so long as everyone uses Microsoft software for fingerprinting their video and everyone else adds a Microsoft browser extension or some other program to read it. Terrific.
But then this is the New Improved Microsoft so they’re going to be a little bit honest while trying to lock you into their universe. “No single organization is going to be able to have meaningful impact on combating disinformation and harmful deepfakes.
“We will do what we can to help, but the nature of the challenge requires that multiple technologies be widely adopted, that educational efforts reach consumers everywhere consistently and that we keep learning more about the challenge as it evolves.”
And so to deal with the fact Microsoft doesn't control everything with do with our technology, it has decided to “partner” with the AI Foundation and its Reality Defender 2020 (RD2020) initiative and “make Video Authenticator available to organizations involved in the democratic process, including news outlets and political campaigns.”
Where do we get it? “Video Authenticator will initially be available only through RD2020, which will guide organizations through the limitations and ethical considerations inherent in any deepfake detection technology.”
We can’t help but notice that Microsoft didn’t even pull off an easy Star Wars R2D2 reference. It was right there, friends.
It’s also “partnered” with the BBC, CBC, New York Times and others to “test our authenticity technology and help advance it as a standard that can be adopted broadly.” Which is great, and we applaud you Microsoft, but let’s be honest, until Fox News and Facebook are on board, we will have to continue screaming into the void. ®
Get our [3]Tech Resources
[1] https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2020/09/01/disinformation-deepfakes-newsguard-video-authenticator/
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2019/08/09/deepfakes_mice/
[3] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Seriously?
Are you telling me that having said that it adds "digital hashes and certificates" to content and that it provides a "high degree of accuracy" of authenticity, that not once could they shoehorn the work "blockchain" in there?
This is either fake news or standards at Microsoft's PR division are slipping.
Re: Seriously?
Are you telling me that having said that it adds "digital hashes and certificates" to content and that it provides a "high degree of accuracy" of authenticity, that not once could they shoehorn the work "blockchain" in there?
Fake photos have been around since almost the dawn of photography. Misinformation was alive and kicking thousands of years before the invention of the printing press. What we are seeing is simply a change in delivery mechanism.
The solutions are the same as they have always been, which are all based on knowing who the publisher is. Social media accounts will eventually cease to be anonymous and their users will have to provide proper credentials, at least to the corporations who run the sites.
Re: Seriously?
The solutions are the same as they have always been, which are all based on knowing who the publisher is
I disagree. Anonymity is a shield from the tyranny of the majority. If not, it ends like in China where no anonymity is allowed to better punish the 'deviant ones'.
The solution is always educating people, learning them to decode manipulation, not to trust blindly information without confirmation, to get and keep a critical mind.
The only way to be sure you're not exposed to this nonsense is to turn off all media.
Double check everything
It isn't enough to tell if a video is manipulated when actual real content is made with hired actors.
IMHO ask the questions: "where are the cameras?" "can I add a person saying 'action' just before the scene begins, is there a director?", "is the audio good quality?" and that will give you an indicator as to the fake nature of these un-manipulated but fake videos.
Is there an instigator in the scene? Is he getting attacked to show his victimhood for his camera crew to film? He hired a camera crew yet not security guards, and the camera crew don't fear they will be attacked? Fake. The attackers are actors, no 'star' will actually risk bodily harm and potentially maiming or death for a video when bit part actors are cheaper than healthcare. No camera crew will put themselves in harms way like that, and no attacker will focus on the person they're supposed to be attacking for the scene, and ignore the camera crew and security team filming him.
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So they took an old video of Harry Belafonte falling asleep on TV and modified it to look like Biden and Trump tweets it. You've revealed the fakeness, so you've won right? Not really. You've formed part of the distraction. Look around, what are you not supposed to be looking at?
Matt Drudge of Drudge Report read the "Mike Pence was put on standby last year when Trump was taken to hospital' book:
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/pence-dont-recall-put-on-standby-trump
He trawled through subsequent video, found Trump's inability to control his right foot, and claimed Trump had a mini stroke citing the video as evidence.
So off we go with Belafonte distraction time.
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It's far more malicious than simply changing people's perceptions during an election. They are trying to genuinely cause violence and stir up hate and killings. You see the killings and the militia Trump called "Great Patriots" recently. Each group crosses state lines to ensure its a Federal Crime, the type Trump can pardon. They go kill a few protestors, then he and Fox News and other Murdoch press, promote them as the good guys.
Fox News pundits and Trump does the "Antifa will kill your children", and Antifa Facebook and Twitter accounts will spew out "lets kill their children" messages to reinforce the lie, but they're the same group.
Russians troll farm pretending to be Antifa
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/blakemontgomery/fake-antifa-account-russia-geotag
White supremacists pretend to be Antifa:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8378767/Twitter-shuts-Antifa-account-run-white-supremacist-group-urging-violence.html
More Russian troll farms pretending to be Antifa
https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-antifa-twitter-fake/fact-check-antifa-twitter-account-that-called-for-violence-was-fake-idUSKBN23B2TY
It's the Reichstag fire approach to propaganda:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichstag_fire
If there were camera-phones then, those videos would record the fire and the videos would all be real and form part of the propaganda to seize power, the the narrative is fake. Fabricated by professional liars to manipulate an election.
Re: Double check everything
As far as being aware of what you're watching, I completely agree that the questions you ask are good questions and worth it to ensure that you're not being had by a staged video. However, it is obvious that Borkzilla's Video Authenticator will not detect those videos, because they are, technically, real. Only human analysis can detect the fakeness there.
But I disagree when you state that racists militia is crossing state borders on purpose because Trump can pardon them. That Trump will still be there to pardon them when their case comes to court is not guaranteed. On the other hand, they're obviously stupid enough to go and kill people just because they are not of the same color, so maybe they can't actually think that far ahead.
Ugh. The United States is now officially a shithole country.
We live in a world where the President of the US espouses conspiracy theories promoted by QAnon, and people still justify what he’s done and plan to vote for him - even people who read The Register, and should really know better (or, at least, be better at critical thinking) and should understand the catastrophic damage that he’s doing.
We live in a world where people shout loudly about how undemocratic the EU is (it isn’t), and spread half assed lies that they read on social media in order further the cause of European disintegration (when we know, from history, how dangerous that road is).
Social media and the internet, far from promoting harmony, peace and understanding, is just fanning the flames and making matters worse. I worry for the future. The penalty for promulgating lies and deep fakes, whatever your platform, should be punitive. I can’t think of a good reason why those at the top, those who benefit most, Zuckerberg, Trump, Dorsey, Murdoch etc shouldn’t face long prison terms and confiscation of assets if they allow this situation to continue.
Muppet politics
All of the candidates are responsable, Trump is no more and no less responsable than Biden and the rest of the American system. They are all involved in these ridiculous "politics"..
It's a muppet game where every muppet tries to out-muppet the other using techniques that would make a muppet blush....
And I agree that Zuckerberg, Trump, Dorsey, Murdoch et al should be help responsible for fanning the flames..
Re: Muppet politics
All of the candidates are responsable
Very fine people on both sides?
Re: Muppet politics
That's a fallacious argument if ever I saw one. No one is saying that Biden, Clinton, Obama or any other Democrat is perfect - but, objectively speaking (and if you put your critical thinking cap on for one moment), he's a hell of a sight better than anyone in the current Republican leadership - and consider that quite a few prominent Republicans think the same (https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/18/politics/republicans-supporting-biden/index.html)
Biden, it's true, has made problematic (to pick the euphemism du jour) statements on race, sexuality etc - but so have most people to one extent or another. But, and certainly in comparison with Trump, Biden is considerate (so no more exciting tweets or 3AM hate storms), he isn't racist, homophobic, misogynist, divisive or prone to gobbling up conspiracy theories. And I'd argue that if you can't trust someone not to cheat on the golf course (or any other game) you definitely shouldn't be trusting them with the most powerful job in the world.
So is Trump 'no less responsible than Biden'? That's bollocks. Trump is a disaster - a responsibility blackhole. Biden is several orders of magnitude worse than Trump. You could grab almost anyone off the street and they'd do a better job than Trump. And if you think that Biden and Trump are equivalent then you really haven't been paying attention.
Re: Muppet politics
@45RPM
"No one is saying that Biden, Clinton, Obama or any other Democrat is perfect - but, objectively speaking (and if you put your critical thinking cap on for one moment), he's a hell of a sight better than anyone in the current Republican leadership"
That depends on your objectives I guess.
Re: Muppet politics
True enough. If you want to increase division in the world, foment racism, homophobia, sexism and violence, encourage nepotism, ruin the environment, and generally hold back the advancement of human civilisation as a whole then Trump is the perfect candidate.
Of course, anyone who has those objectives is a horrible human being, who should probably seek help for their considerable character defects.
I'm not saying that Republicanism as a whole is a bad thing (it isn't my cup of tea, but I know a few rational, sane, people on the (centre) right wing of politics). I am saying that Trumpism is entirely objectionable, and based on lies, prejudice and conspiracy theory. And there's enough evidence* out there to back me up in this opinion.
*you know - real, hard evidence. Not mere conjecture, conspiracy theory and stuff off of social media.
Re: Muppet politics
@45RPM
"True enough. If you want to increase division in the world, foment racism, homophobia, sexism and violence, encourage nepotism, ruin the environment, and generally hold back the advancement of human civilisation as a whole then Trump is the perfect candidate."
That might be your opinion but objectively its a bit different.
My impression is that this is going to red flag anything that has detectable post production signatures so that's 90% or more of photos and presumably a fair amount of videos.
Or is it smarter than that?