Given the flood of photorealistic AI-generated images washing over social media networks like X and Facebook these days, we're seemingly entering a new age of media skepticism: the era of what I'm calling “deep doubt.” While questioning the authenticity of digital content stretches back decades—and analog media long before that—easy …
Read More »Could AI and Deepfakes Sway the US Election?
A few months ago, everyone was worried about how AI would impact the 2024 election. It seems like some of the angst has dissipated, but political deepfakes—including pornographic images and video—are still everywhere. Today on the show, WIRED reporters Vittoria Elliott and Will Knight talk about what has changed with …
Read More »Google Cracks Down on Explicit Deepfakes
A few weeks ago, a Google search for “deepfake nudes jennifer aniston” brought up at least seven high-up results that purported to have explicit, AI-generated images of the actress. Now they have vanished. Google product manager Emma Higham says that new adjustments to how the company ranks results, which have …
Read More »The ACLU Fights for Your Constitutional Right to Make Deepfakes
You wake up on Election Day and unlock your phone to a shaky video of your state capitol. In the hectic footage, smoke billows from the statehouse. In other clips posted alongside it, gunshots ring out in the distance. You think to yourself: Maybe better to skip the polling booth …
Read More »Deepfakes Are Evolving. This Company Wants to Catch Them All
Some Fortune 500 companies have begun testing software that can spot a deepfake of a real person in a live video call, following a spate of scams involving fraudulent job seekers who take a signing bonus and run. The detection technology comes courtesy of GetReal Labs, a new company founded …
Read More »Why the EU’s Vice President Isn’t Worried About Moon-Landing Conspiracies on YouTube
When European Commission vice president Věra Jourová met with YouTube CEO Neal Mohan in California last week, they fell to talking about the long-running conspiracy theory that the moon landings were fake. YouTube has faced calls from some users and advocacy groups to remove videos that question the historic missions. …
Read More »Met Gala Deepfakes Are Flooding Social Media
This story originally appeared on WIRED Italia, and has been translated from Italian. The Met Gala is undoubtedly one of the most anticipated events of the year, but this time the music and entertainment celebrities who graced its red carpet had some competition for the public's attention: generative AI deepfakes. …
Read More »These Dangerous Scammers Don’t Even Bother to Hide Their Crimes
Most scammers and cybercriminals operate in the digital shadows and don’t want you to know how they make money. But that’s not the case for the Yahoo Boys, a loose collective of young men in West Africa who are some of the web’s most prolific—and increasingly dangerous—scammers. Thousands of people …
Read More »The Biggest Deepfake Porn Website Is Now Blocked in the UK
Two of the biggest deepfake pornography websites have now started blocking people trying to access them from the United Kingdom. The move comes days after the UK government announced plans for a new law that will make creating nonconsensual deepfakes a criminal offense. Nonconsensual deepfake pornography websites and apps that …
Read More »The Real-Time Deepfake Romance Scams Have Arrived
The compliments start flowing as soon as she answers the video call. “Wow, you so pretty, honey,” says the man on the other side of the screen. His video feed shows he’s white, with short hair, likely a few years younger than her, and is sitting in front of his …
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