Uh oh! Here's yet more AI that creates creepy fake talking heads Machine-learning experts have built a neural network that can manipulate facial movements in videos to create fake footage – in which people appear to say something they never actually said. It could be used to create convincing yet faked announcements and confessions seemingly uttered by the rich and powerful as well as the …
As Michael Faraday once said to Gladstone: Sir, there is every probability that you will soon be able to tax it!' refering to new and dangerous stuff build for no other reason than that it can be done.
Well, it's not as if this work had the difficulty of a hydrogen bomb program.
On second thought, it actually has, but mainstreamed.
Wait until everyone can buy a gene sequencer, that's gonna be phun. Not talking about nanotech assemblers, because these may or may not be possible but they are definitely far out.
(Now, the real question is - will Poland be spooked into transferring a few more billions to US coffers for a "NATO presence" on its territory by a fake Putin head repeatedly saying "Boo" on TV?)
(Now, the real question is - will Poland be spooked into transferring a few more billions to US coffers for a "NATO presence" on its territory by a fake Putin head repeatedly saying "Boo" on TV?) ... Destroy All Monsters
Is not Poland playing the diseased whore with Uncle Sam paying for tricks?
One thing the escalated NATO presence on its territory proves is that Poland has no effective native leaders and is virtually bankrupt in more than just proprietary intellectual property?
Media have been editing text, audio and video for years so interviewees can appear to say anything. Or more commonly, made to appear ignorant of the noble, enlightened view of whatever bigotry was received truth of the media droids at the time. Example Malcolm Muggeridge informing the West that Stalin lead a nightmare state. Winston warmongering about Hitler. More recent examples are Bliar and Co. So the distrust grows. Now if only a cultural distrust of asocial media can only be made a general attitude among the non-technical.
I think it is important that the people get to know the possibilities of manipulation techniques. ..... Justus Theis, a coauthor of the paper and a postdoctoral researcher
FFS .... which planet have you just arrived from that knows diddly squat?
Welcome to Virtual Fight Clubs where Worlds are yours for the faking and taking and making over.
Some interesting comments here. I notice someone has resurrected the worry about what happens when gene-editing/-splicing becomes generally accessible. It's pertinent, because the fundamental question is "What happens when powerful tools fall into the hands of idiots or bastards?"
I suggest we're already seeing just how damaging and chaotic this can be.
Arguably the internet, social media specifically, has given a platform, with megaphone, to hordes of nasty, racist, misogynist, extremist shytebags and a zillion immature twits—many of them actively celebrating their ignorance and intolerance. The filter of newspapers' letters pages and mainstream TV channels has been replaced by a screaming mob. Reflection, consideration, respect for facts, rationality—it's all disappearing in a worldwide shouting match where the emptiest tins make the most noise.
This has already done massive damage. It may even come to be seen as fatal for western democracy. Look at what happened with Brexit. Look at the cretin infesting the White House. Look at the torrent of lies emerging daily in degraded political discourse in Washington and Westminster.
The only reason a bunch of cities have not become lakes of steaming glass since 1945 is that building a functional atomic warhead is exceedingly difficult: especially obtaining the fissile material. Else a great many loonies, terrorist and malcontents would by now have blown stuff up.
But other technologies, in their own way equally dangerous, will not be so restrictive. Letting ignorant wingnuts nucleate in their vile little racist conclaves has already done immense damage—what would you expect to happen when people like this can start fiddling with versions of the flu virus?
Considering this topic specifically, look at what's happened as computer malware has become prevalent, and increasingly accessible to non-specialists. We've seen huge attacks on specific companies, organisations and nation states. We've seen how quickly these things spread indiscriminately once they escape into the wild. The cost has been spectacular.
The motivation and desire among certain groups to do horrible things is undoubtedly present. Soon they may have the ability as well as the intention.
Who will be first to splice up a really horrid version of Ebola that targets people of a specific genetic type? China? Russia? The kind of people who believe the shit they inhale on Fox&Friends?
Be afraid.
and when I say "burn the boffins, once you're through with politicians, lawyers and bankers!", the bots say: hereby I sentence you to another 15 years for spreading violent and extremist views. But I didn't say: "shut down the judge-bots, nosir!" :/
And what does the internet do with it? Use it for porn.
Thanks humanity.
The Interwet?. To be fair, it's what humanity does with any new tech they invent - I think it's necessary, sex is tied into the 'play' circuit in the adult human - and 'play' is how humans explore things when learning. As with bone and antler carving, murals, canvas and cameras. 'VHS' Videos and DVDs
Only after the porn use stage will it get applied to something useful and productive.
It seems rather unfair and counter productive to layer this behaviour with negative connotations per-se
Frankly, IMHO, if a figurehead is too poorly understood, or a populace too easily manipulated, that this kind of thing actually fools enough people to make any difference, then they deserve what they get. There should be such a thing as common sense.
But that aside, I don't get it. With proper mocap setup "fake" actors have been used in movies for years as special effects, with various qualities. I would have thought that by now, at least with popular figures that have extensive public catalogs of data to draw from, that by now we could do a full 3D model with realistic facial-recognition-trained animations and flawless voice synthesis with emotional range models at the push of a button, in effect green-screening both the scene and the actors with believable quality.
Hollywood alone could fund the bejezus out of such software and put it to nearly infinite abuse. That our technology is publicly this far behind says a lot.
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