Political deepfakes are images and videos that manipulate the audience by making politicians say or do what they never actually did or said. This technique is used to convince people to vote for a specific politician.
In addition, many politicians were victimized by the deepfakes such as Joe Biden, London Mayor Sadiq Khan, and many others. This is done only to manipulate the audience against them or to destroy their reputation. It might be due to the rising conflicts between the politicians that evoke the urge to take revenge.
How Political Deepfakes Are Created?
Deepfakes are created proficiently by using various samples and some of the advanced techniques in AI. political deepfake detection needs extra care and attention to make them more authentic in front of the audience. Here are a few steps for creating deepfakes:
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Deep Learning
This is a type of AI that works by using neural networks. These networks are like neurons in the human brain. These interconnected nodes function to learn various patterns to mimic an individual. A large number of data or samples can help in the better learning of AI about a specific person.
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Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN):
There are two neural networks in GAN. One creates fake content while the other works to detect whether it is fake or real. It happens until the AI makes the perfect deepfake.
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Face Swapping Software
Several face-swapping software can easily swap the face of a politician with someone else. And the AI can easily make the model say what they never intended to say.
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Video Editing
The video at the end is edited to provide appropriate light, sound, and gestures. It also verifies whether the sound and the message are authentically delivered to the relevant audience or not.
To perform these tasks, the scammers have to collect authentic data about the targeted person. To gather data on a politician is a cup of tea for any scammer. It can be taken from the videos available online, and on social media, and the voices can be recorded from their interviews.
Implementations of Deepfakes
There are many uses and implementations of political deepfakes. People are using their deepfakes to mock them or mainly to spread misinformation among the audience. Here are some implementations of such deepfakes:
- Such deepfakes are used to mislead people against a specific politician. AI deepfakes in elections are used to get votes to deprive the other politician of getting more votes. Election deepfakes are more threatening than others.
- Some politicians also use the deepfakes of their opponent politicians to threaten them to back out from the front.
- The deepfakes are influential. Sometimes people know that it is a deepfake but it raises conflict in the minds whether the content is real or fake.
- Some comedy shows also create deepfakes of politicians to mock them or to spread humor.
- Memes are also being created by using politicians.
Consequences of Creating Political Deepfakes
Deepfakes can cause serious harm to the politicians. It can lead to many factors that can easily destroy their personal and professional life in no time. Here are some of the consequences that might be faced by the victimized politicians:
- Such deepfakes might result in the mistrust of people. The people will start questioning the authenticity and honesty of the politician.
- It can raise severe trust issues and eventually, that politician will lose the trust of many people and can never succeed in being a good leader.
- The opinions of the voters may be affected by the deepfake videos.
- This can also be done to divert the attention of the politician from the real issues. In this way, the politician will somehow ignore the current issues and be involved in resolving the deepfake content.
Future of Deepfake Technology
With the advancements in AI, deepfakes will likely become more realistic and hard to detect. It can be seen that people are using their deepfakes to attend several online meetings and appear in online exams with their deepfakes. Over time, detection applications have also been introduced to prevent deepfakes. Besides, political campaigns can be carried out using deepfakes. It can be done without interrupting the politicians and without wasting their time. Hence, the awareness can resolve several issues regarding the deepfakes. It can help the audience to gain knowledge about political deepfake detection.
