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South Park creators have new political satire series with AI-generated deepfakes

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Re: South Park creators have new political satire series with AI-generated deepfakes

#231

Post by Igelau »

echelon wrote: post #113
hospadar wrote: post #57

This is SO GREAT! I often feel deep existential dread about deepfakes and the lag between when they are viable (now) and when everyone stops trusting video that doesn't have some kind of rock-solid signed/encrypted/testified provenance (years from now or never?). What better way to educate the public about deepfake technology than with over-the top satire?

I agree 100%. Deepfake hysteria is absurd. I'm the author of https://vo.codes , and my goal has been to make deep fakes as accessible as possible so people become familiar with them. You know what people use vo.codes for? Memes. That's it. A number of journalists have decided the technology is entirely confusing and deceitful. While there are new risks posed by deep fakes, I believe the potential for good far outweig…

> A number of journalists have decided the technology is entirely confusing and deceitful.

It's not the journalists I'm worried about. It's the advertisers.

> Deepfakes are just the next wave of photoshop. People don't use photoshop to steal elections and win court cases. They use it to make memes. It's the same deal with deepfakes.

You say that now. By 2024 we'll be getting served political ads depicting "Person who looks like my cousin" in a riot, "Child that looks so much like mine" being shoved into the backdoor of a pizza parlor, or "Sad sack that looks like me" standing in an unemployment line. Fairly certain we all signed away the permission to use our likenesses in the various TOS.

It's also going to be a whole new vein for bullying, e.g. "Goofus hates Gallant. Most kids hate Gallant. Goofus posts low-grade deepfakes of Gallant dying and committing acts of self-harm. The bodies and the hair don't match at all since the source GIFs are from movies and tv, but it's definitely Gallant's face. Goofus gets a short term dopamine burst from his fake internet points as his peers pluslike and cross-post. One day Gallant decides, 'maybe they're right'"

I know it sounds like panicky, theatric, Black Mirror script stuff, but there are no missing pieces to keep either of these from being a button click away. It just might not be quite cheap enough yet.

Re: South Park creators have new political satire series with AI-generated deepfakes

#232

Post by mypalmike »

keiferski wrote: post #85
lkxijlewlf wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This works in a courtroom. This won't work for a politician who retweets a faked video that then incites real violence. And that , at least for now, is where we truly need to be concerned.

The onus of responsibility is still on the person doing the violence. Contrary to the fearmongering, I'd say deepfakes will just make people not believe things they read on the Internet (again), especially as the technology becomes more widespread.

Genocides happen because of propaganda. The planners and financers and propagandists don't tend to kill with their own hands. But they command massive acts of violence.

Just one example: A radio station (RTLM) in Rwanda laid the groundwork of genocide by dehumanizing Tutsis, among other things by referring to them as "cockroaches" repeatedly. The station was deemed instrumental in the resulting murders of at least half a million people.

It's not fear mongering to look at the facts of history and see that propaganda is a primary way that violence scales. Deep fakes are another tool which will certainly be used towards these same ends. What propagandist would not want to use such a tool?

Re: South Park creators have new political satire series with AI-generated deepfakes

#233

Post by dragonwriter »

mypalmike wrote: post #232
keiferski wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The onus of responsibility is still on the person doing the violence. Contrary to the fearmongering, I'd say deepfakes will just make people not believe things they read on the Internet (again), especially as the technology becomes more widespread.

Genocides happen because of propaganda. The planners and financers and propagandists don't tend to kill with their own hands. But they command massive acts of violence. Just one example: A radio station (RTLM) in Rwanda laid the groundwork of genocide by dehumanizing Tutsis, among other things by referring to them as "cockroaches" repeatedly. The station was deemed instrumental in the resulting murders of at least ha…

> It's not fear mongering to look at the facts of history and see that propaganda is a primary way that violence scales.

Propaganda is a primary way that human action and organization, whether violent or not, for good or ill, scales.

Re: South Park creators have new political satire series with AI-generated deepfakes

#234

Post by talentedcoin »

echelon wrote: post #113
hospadar wrote: post #57

This is SO GREAT! I often feel deep existential dread about deepfakes and the lag between when they are viable (now) and when everyone stops trusting video that doesn't have some kind of rock-solid signed/encrypted/testified provenance (years from now or never?). What better way to educate the public about deepfake technology than with over-the top satire?

I agree 100%. Deepfake hysteria is absurd. I'm the author of https://vo.codes , and my goal has been to make deep fakes as accessible as possible so people become familiar with them. You know what people use vo.codes for? Memes. That's it. A number of journalists have decided the technology is entirely confusing and deceitful. While there are new risks posed by deep fakes, I believe the potential for good far outweig…

Sorry, but if the "new media renaissance" is SpongeBob singing WAP, count me out. I don't think it's exciting, I think it's lame.

But you're right, there's always money to be made in making the Internet an even dumber place than it is already. Have fun!

Re: South Park creators have new political satire series with AI-generated deepfakes

#235

Post by LinuxBender »

echelon wrote: post #113
hospadar wrote: post #57

This is SO GREAT! I often feel deep existential dread about deepfakes and the lag between when they are viable (now) and when everyone stops trusting video that doesn't have some kind of rock-solid signed/encrypted/testified provenance (years from now or never?). What better way to educate the public about deepfake technology than with over-the top satire?

I agree 100%. Deepfake hysteria is absurd. I'm the author of https://vo.codes , and my goal has been to make deep fakes as accessible as possible so people become familiar with them. You know what people use vo.codes for? Memes. That's it. A number of journalists have decided the technology is entirely confusing and deceitful. While there are new risks posed by deep fakes, I believe the potential for good far outweig…

As the technology improves, it will become disruptive and enable average people to join the ranks of Hollywood actors, directors, music producers, and vocalists. The future isn't A-list celebrities and grammy winners, it's people like you and me.

Just my two cents, but acting is not as simple as wearing someone's face. If deepfakes make me look like an A-list actor, that alone will not get me a lead role in a big budget movie. I would still require acting skills.

Re: South Park creators have new political satire series with AI-generated deepfakes

#236

Post by edanm »

three_seagrass wrote: post #185
grawprog wrote: post #55

I understand the worries behind deep fakes, but i'm going to be a bit facetious here, hasn't getting the most realistic, lifelike images always been the goal of computer graphics? Wouldn't deepfakes be the ultimate culmination of lifelike CGI. So lifelike it's indistinguishable from the real thing? Like for most of my life, this is the goal I keep hearing about. Now it's here, suddenly it's too real. I dunno just see…

Deep fake is photoshop for video and audio. Alarmists are going to opine the many ways it will cause the sky to fall but life will continue.

Life will continue is a pretty low bar...

Re: South Park creators have new political satire series with AI-generated deepfakes

#237

Post by ryan-allen »

01100011 wrote: post #201

This is the funniest thing Matt and Trey have done in years. I don't know if they still write the show, but it hasn't been funny to me in a couple years. This clip had me rolling. This feels inspired and I hope it creates more awareness in the general public.

Trey Parker is credited as the writer for the vast majority of episodes of South Park, especially since Season 4. Most of their episodes are topical these days, I recommend checking out the recent Pandemic Special.

Matt, Trey and a guy named Robert Lopez wrote the theatre production Book of Mormon, which was well received and won Tony awards (Trey studied Musical Theatre in College, which explains why the South Park Movie was a musical).

Trey's daughter was cast as Jared Kushner in Sassy Justice, which was hilarious, and the lead in Sassy Justice is played by Peter Serafinowicz [0], who is a British comedian!

I hope they make more of these, not just because I'm a fan, but because it massively disseminates the power of deepfakes!

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-7NDP8V-6A

Re: South Park creators have new political satire series with AI-generated deepfakes

#238

Post by mattnewton »

fredley wrote: post #7

I _think_ that the Michael Cain section is Peter Serafinowicz doing a Michael Cain impression (which has then been deepfaked), but it could be Lyre Bird or similar! The fact that I really can't make my mind up which it could be and the weird sense of doubt, to me, means that this has hit the mark perfectly. I've been thinking about this video a lot since I first saw it. It's genuinely very unsettling.

I thought the punchline was going to be a wavenet-style audio deepfake for that segment haha, I had no idea it was a person doing it haha. It explains why they repeatedly said it was impossible for a _human_ to do a perfect impersonation.

Re: South Park creators have new political satire series with AI-generated deepfakes

#239

Post by ufmace »

ACow_Adonis wrote: post #226
readams wrote: post #194

People are going crazy over deepfakes but we've had Photoshop for a long time and the world hasn't ended. We find ways to verify the content of photos through other means, such as their provenance.

except (in my experience as a photographer), most/a significant chunk of the general public not only don't understand photoshop, but will actively disbelieve you about the extent, purpose and outcome of manipulations. Also, it's one thing to say the world hasn't ended, but that's to potentially downplay at a minimum the idea that commercial and widespread use of photoshop hasn't had widespread effects on body and sel…

It helps that a lot of the photoshops going around the internet are either super-sloppy or depict things that are obviously ridiculous. I actually can't think of any time somebody tried to alter a photo in a way that would change the meaning in a believable way and distributed it in such a way that they were trying to convince people it was real. Have I missed something?

Re: South Park creators have new political satire series with AI-generated deepfakes

#240

Post by echelon »

LinuxBender wrote: post #235
echelon wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree 100%. Deepfake hysteria is absurd. I'm the author of https://vo.codes , and my goal has been to make deep fakes as accessible as possible so people become familiar with them. You know what people use vo.codes for? Memes. That's it. A number of journalists have decided the technology is entirely confusing and deceitful. While there are new risks posed by deep fakes, I believe the potential for good far outweig…

As the technology improves, it will become disruptive and enable average people to join the ranks of Hollywood actors, directors, music producers, and vocalists. The future isn't A-list celebrities and grammy winners, it's people like you and me. Just my two cents, but acting is not as simple as wearing someone's face. If deepfakes make me look like an A-list actor, that alone will not get me a lead role in a big bud…

Do you know how many skilled, under-appreciated actors there are in the world? The economics of production create limited head room at the top. You'd be shocked how many talented actors, directors, and writers there are that go undiscovered and under-utilized.
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