A NEW generation of AI-engineered deep fakes has raised awareness of how difficult it is to detect doctored images and video.
AI startup Runway on Monday showed how the latest wave of artificially-generated video technology is reaching new heights, from a first-person view of it hurtling through a lush green rainforest to a bird’s-eye view of an abandoned city.
“Introducing the new entry-level Gen-3 Alpha: Runway for video generation,” the company shared on social media platform X.
“The Gen-3 Alpha can create highly detailed videos with complex scene changes, a wide range of cinematic options and detailed art instructions,” they said.
In one short and eye-catching clip, viewers can watch a close-up scene of a bald man’s face getting excited before he gets a wig – and the quality is stunning.
“Challenge: A sad bald middle-aged man becomes happy as a curly wig hair and the sunglasses suddenly fall off his head,” Runway captioned the video in a post.
The details of the men’s expressions are incredibly fine, especially when viewed in slow motion.
The AI-generated character’s joy at accepting the wig on his bare head looks very realistic, matching the silliness of the wig’s red color and curly texture.
The man’s clear and natural transition between emotions is a big improvement over previous publicly available AI video generation systems.
AI USERS in awe
AI fanatics agreed with Runway – the improved model is amazing in its capabilities.
“This is crazy. Very soon we will be able to download an app to make a movie about anything we want,” wrote one user on Reddit (r/aivideo).
“Even though these are cherry picked, they already look better than Sora,” said the second person, referring to another AI video generation model.
Some people said that the shocking realism of the videos scared them.
“Oh my god, this shouldn’t exist,” one user responded.
“We’ll actually get to see what magic would look like if it was real…Jeeze,” added another.
A lot of people were particularly impressed by the clip of the man getting the wig.
“A bald guy with a wig was conveying three stages of emotion from one challenge: sadness, surprise, happiness,” one fan wrote.
“That’s a real game changer.”
DEFENSE AGAINST DEEPFAKES
Here’s what Sean Keach, head of technology and science at The Sun and The US Sun…
The rise of deepfakes is one of the most worrying trends in online security.
Deepfake technology can create your videos from just one photo – so almost no one is safe.
But even if it seems a bit hopeless, the rapid rise of deepfakes has some positives.
For starters, there is now much more awareness of deepfakes.
So people will look for signs that a video might be fake.
Similarly, tech companies are investing time and money into software that can detect fake AI content.
This means social media will be able to report fake content to you with more confidence – and more often.
As the quality of deepfakes grows, you’ll probably have trouble spotting visual errors—especially in a few years.
So your best defense is your own common sense: apply scrutiny to everything you watch online.
Ask if the video is something that would make sense for someone to fake it – and who benefits from seeing the clip?
If you’re being told something alarming, someone is saying something that seems inappropriate, or you’re being rushed into action, there’s a chance you’re watching a scam clip.
NOT QUITE PERFECT
However, the Gen-3 Alpha is not without room for improvement.
Even its own developers only gave the wig man clip a 7/10 for fidelity and realism.
There are some obvious signs that this might be a deep fake – can you spot them?
Viewers watching the clip closely will notice that the lighting in the man’s mouth distorts in an unnatural way towards the end.
They may also notice that after the wig is flattened, rogue hair appears to float around the man’s head.
Another sign that the video was created by AI can be found on the man’s neck – the crease on the right side turns strangely dark as he stretches upwards.