Social media algorithms are still failing to counter misleading content

As the Afghanistan crisis continues to unfold, it’s clear that social media algorithms are unable to counter enough misleading and/or fake content.

While it’s unreasonable to expect that no disingenuous content will slip through the net, the sheer amount that continues to plague social networks shows that platform-holders still have little grip on the issue.

When content is removed, it should either be prevented from being reuploaded or at least flagged as...

17 August 2021 | Ethics & Society

Researchers from Microsoft and global leading universities study the ‘offensive AI’ threat

A group of researchers from Microsoft and seven global leading universities have conducted an industry study into the threat offensive AI is posing to organisations.

AIs are beneficial tools but are indiscriminate in also providing assistance to individuals and groups that set out to cause harm.

The researchers’ study into offensive AI used both existing research into the subject in addition to responses from organisations including Airbus, Huawei, and...

2 July 2021 | Companies

Researchers find systems to counter deepfakes can be deceived

Researchers have found that systems designed to counter the increasing prevalence of deepfakes can be deceived.

The researchers, from the University of California - San Diego, first presented their findings at the WACV 2021 conference.

Shehzeen Hussain, a UC San Diego computer engineering PhD student and co-author on the paper, said:

"Our work shows that attacks on deepfake detectors could be a real-world threat.

More alarmingly, we demonstrate that it's...

10 February 2021 | Artificial Intelligence

University College London: Deepfakes are the ‘most serious’ AI crime threat

Researchers from University College London have released a ranking of what experts believe to be the most serious AI crime threats.

The researchers first created a list of 20 expected ways AI will be used by criminals within the next 15 years. 31 experts were then asked to rank them by potential severity.

Deepfakes – AI-generated images, videos, and articles – ranked top of the list as the most serious threat.

New and dangerous territory

It’s of little...

6 August 2020 | Ethics & Society

Deepfake app puts your face on GIFs while limiting data collection

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A new app called Doublicat allows users to superimpose their face into popular GIFs using deep learning technology.

In the name of research, here's one I made earlier:

Doublicat uses a Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) to do its magic. The GAN is called RefaceAI and is developed by a company of the same name.

RefaceAI was previously used in a face swapping app called Reflect. Elon Musk once used Reflect to put his face on Dwayne Johnson's...

14 January 2020 | Deep & Reinforcement Learning

Facebook pledges crackdown on deepfakes ahead of the US presidential election

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Facebook has pledged to crack down on misleading deepfakes ahead of the US presidential election later this year.

Voter manipulation is a concern for any functioning democracy and deepfakes provide a whole new challenge for social media platforms.

A fake video of Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, went viral last year after purportedly showing her slurring her words as if she was intoxicated. The clip shows how even a relatively...

8 January 2020 | Meta (Facebook)

Experts discuss the current biggest threats posed by AI

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Several experts have given their thoughts on what threats AI poses, and unsurprisingly fake content is the current biggest danger.

The experts, who were speaking on Tuesday at the WSJ Pro Cybersecurity Executive Forum in New York, believe that AI-generated content is of pressing concern to our societies.

Camille François, chief innovation officer at social media analytics firm Graphika, says that deepfake articles pose the greatest danger.

We've already seen...

4 December 2019 | Ethics & Society

California introduces legislation to stop political and porn deepfakes

Deepfake videos have the potential to do unprecedented amounts of harm so California has introduced two bills designed to limit them.

For those unaware, deepfakes use machine learning technology in order to make a person appear like they’re convincingly doing or saying things which they’re not.

There are two main concerns about deepfake videos:

Personal defamation – An individual is made to appear in a sexual and/or humiliating scene either for blackmail...

7 October 2019 | Ethics & Society

Adobe has trained an AI to detect photoshopped images

Adobe has trained an AI to detect when images have been photoshopped which could help in the fight against deepfakes.

The software giant partnered with researchers from the University of California on the AI. A convolutional neural network (CNN) was trained to spot changes made to images using Photoshop’s Face-Aware Liquify feature.

Face-Aware Liquify is a feature designed to adjust and exaggerate facial features. Photoshop automatically detects facial features to...

17 June 2019 | Artificial Intelligence

McAfee: Keep an eye on the humans pulling the levers, not the AIs

Security firm McAfee has warned that it’s more likely humans will use AI for malicious purposes rather than it going rogue itself.

It’s become a cliché metaphor, but people are still concerned a self-thinking killer AI like SkyNet from the film Terminator will be created.

McAfee CTO Steve Grobman spoke at this year’s RSA conference in San Francisco and warned the wrong humans in control of powerful AIs are his company’s primary concern.

To provide an...

6 March 2019 | Security