Digital safety expert shows how to spot deepfakes created by artificial intelligence
CHICAGO (CBS) — one of the biggest technology conventions kicked off Tuesday in Las Vegas—The Consumer Electronics Show, or CES.
The event will run through Friday, and artificial intelligence will undoubtedly be a big part of it this year.
One attendee from the Chicago area will be a digital security expert from Accenture. Before his trip, he shared how to avoid fake videos created using AI.
"So an example of a deepfake is when you take a video that's been recorded on a phone, and you can do a face swap."
Scam artists have always been around, but according to Accenture security expert Daniel Kendzior, what's different nowadays is how easy it is to make a good fake video or audio clip.
"What's really changed is that you always had an ability to create some of these images, but the speed and relative low resources to do it is very different now. Folks can do it from home," he said.
That's why Accenture created examples to help spot bogus videos, one including a woman whom they used her face in other videos. Kendzior walks through a few of them.
"The complexion is the face and neck are a bit different, so that stands out. The size of the face on the face swap tend to be a little off as well."
Because of artificial intelligence or AI, Kendzior says it's easy to make similar videos. In another example, a higher resolution of the woman's face stuck out more from the rest of the background. He says it's easier to spot if you slow down or freeze the video.
"This is a frequent one. There's potentially a video that's gone viral of someone doing something that's creating a commotion, and in this one, the face has been applied to it. You see this whole line, this is because the face has been applied on top of the hat," he said.
Even with training, the technology continues to improve, making deepfakes harder to spot. Kendzior said there's one thing that should raise a red flag.
"The threat actor is trying to create a sense of urgency. So if you feel like someone is trying to make you do something quickly, use that as a gut instinct if I need to slow down and double-check," he said.
Kendzior said another way to spot a deepfake is if you know the person in the video and can see differences in how they normally speak or move.
