As we navigate the digital age, the rise of deepfakes—realistic, AI-generated media that can alter appearances and voices with astonishing accuracy—presents both thrilling possibilities and profound challenges. In this blog, we’ll explore the fascinating world of deepfakes, from their technical underpinnings to their implications for privacy, ethics, and society at large. We will also discuss how Deepfakes are being misused in the US Elections for political as well as personal benefits.
Whether you're a tech enthusiast, a skeptic, or simply curious about the evolving landscape of digital media, The Deepfake Digest is your go-to resource for understanding the future of synthetic reality.
Deepfakes - An Introduction
Deepfakes are a type of artificial intelligence-generated media that use machine learning techniques to create highly realistic but entirely synthetic images, videos, or audio recordings. Adobe Photoshop in the 90s started the trend of superimposing faces over original images.
With the advent of AI, trained models have improvised to generate videos. These are more convincing and have more potential to fraud people. Videos of eminent personalities like Barack Obama, Gal Gadot in 2017-18 claimed by a reddit user – Mr. Deepfakes.
In the ongoing US Elections, an image of Taylor Swift and her followers surfaced, depicting full support for the Republican candidate Donald Trump. Quickly, the Internet found it to be slightly suspicious and the search began. Media houses like ‘The Guardian’, ‘BBC’, ‘Al-Jazeera’ published the news, confirming the images were AI generated. Later on, Taylor Swift confirmed that the image was in fact not her.
Use of Deepfake in the US Elections
- Donald Trump Gold Badge - How scammers are using deepfake to manipulate US citizens
Important events such as Olympics 2024, Russia-Ukraine conflict, or the current hot topic, the US Elections, these events often attract the attention of common citizens. These events equally attract scammers, who find various methods to scam citizens, looking for an opportunity to grow.
One such event was identified running on facebook and Instagram, during 6-7 September, 2024. The videos are now being circulated without deep fake content, only audio. Latest video seen on 18-19 October.
As part of this Ad, a promotional video for a survey which is offering free “Trump Fight for America” gold coins to anyone who answers their one-question poll. The video urges people to participate and help Donald Trump win the election. The video is not affiliated with or endorsed by Donald Trump or any political party associated with him.
Video, which seemed authentic initially, came under suspicion due to the unusual movements of the anchor, and a highly tempting offer shared in it, I mean who would give away gold coin for participating in a poll.
As we investigated the video, our suspicions resulted to be correct, as the video analyzer again detected high discrepancies in the video, here is what it said
Interestingly, the link shared along with the video, accepts facebook Ads as origin, while if copied and accessed in a new tab, redirects to a parking page. Original link shown below
Domain that has been registered in the month of April, 2024 by an organization based out of Iceland, very carefully posts 5-10 videos monthly to avoid detections.
To create a sense of urgency, the website talks about limited stock and high demand, and also collects Card details.
2. Deepfakes of the Presidential Debate
In the above image we see an X handle(@SouSanDiego) sharing a video of the ongoing debate in which Donald Trump is seen abusing Kamala Harris during the action points given by her, which she plans to do . The video, which seemed to have only Donald Trump’s facial attributes manipulated, circulated through multiple X handles, with a question of it being a deepfake or not.
Cloudsek’s Deepfake analyzer identified the Facial Attributes manipulated in an unusual manner, specifically for Donald Trump. Here is what our analyzer had to say:
3. Donald Trump Abusing Citizens and giving extreme statements
Another example portraying use of Deepfakes in 2024 Elections of the US, was shared by a handle on X, wherein, former President Donald Trump is seen making a statement about how great of a president he is. He talks about how he's doing the best he can for America and that people should not believe the fake news that tries to make him look bad. He also calls out some of his opponents. Again, the suspicion grew and we decided to run the video through CloudSek’s Deepfake Analyzer, correctly to which, the video was marked as a result of mixing old video with lip syncing.
4. Elon Musk views on Presidential Debate, leading to a crypto scam - Double
While investigating how threat actors have been attempting to influence the US Elections, we researched well-known video sharing platform - YouTube(@Tesla-p2x) as well. And less to our surprise, we at CloudSek discovered a live video of Elon Musk being shared through different channels , where he is seen sharing his views about Presidential candidates - Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.
Over layered on this video was a scanner code, to a website - muskdebate[.]io
This source URL, marked as a potentially phishing website, is seen promoting investment in cryptocurrency, and promising (2X) in crypto currency, if accessed via the mentioned URL.
On investigating the video through CloudSek Video analyzer, here is what it said:
5. Former President Barack Obama and the dangers of Deepfake manipulation
While investigating through Telegram channels, we identified a very important video of Former President, Barack Obama. Barack Obama speaks about the importance of being vigilant about what you trust from the internet, especially in the age of information. He says that his enemies can make it look like anyone is saying anything at any point in time, even if they would never say those things. He gives the example of how they could have him say things like 'Killmonger was right' or 'Ben Carson is in the sunken place' to spread disinformation. Obama emphasizes the need to rely on trusted news sources and stay awake.
CloudSek Video Analyzer review: The video may have a mix of human-created components along with AI-generated components.
Summary:
Deepfakes—sophisticated AI-generated media that convincingly alter video and audio content—represent a significant threat to the integrity of US elections. These manipulated materials can fabricate statements, misattribute actions, and create false narratives, thereby distorting public perception and potentially swaying voter behavior. The danger lies not only in the spread of misinformation but also in the potential to erode trust in democratic institutions and media sources. As deepfake technology advances, it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish between genuine and falsified content, raising concerns about the resilience of electoral processes against digital manipulation.
CloudSek's Deepfake detection technology emerges as a crucial asset in combating this threat. Leveraging cutting-edge detection algorithms and machine learning. It examines anomalies in facial expressions, voice modulation, and other subtle irregularities that often go unnoticed.
By providing real-time analysis and verification, CloudSek's Deepfake detection technology helps election officials, media organizations, and the public identify and address deepfakes swiftly. This capability is vital for preserving the credibility of information and ensuring that electoral processes remain fair and transparent in the face of evolving digital threats.