What do marketers need to be aware of about video fakes?

When you hear the word "deepfake," you might instantly think of fraud, ethically questionable or downright disturbing videos which have swept across the web over the past couple of years. However, as fake videos - and the AI technology behind them - only get more sophisticated, it's imperative that creators and marketers across every industry learn how they work and explore ways to use them in order to keep ahead in our changing world.

For those who aren't familiar, deepfakes are synthetic media which have been created digitally and altered to alter or recreate a person's appearance convincingly - resulting in the ability to create videos that look and feel real however aren't. This is why it's normal that they may receive a negative rap as they spread misinformation and exploit peoples' likenesses.

Like any technology, though it's all about how you utilize it. Creative and forward-thinking creators and marketers have already begun using the technology of deepfake -- in a responsible and ethical mannertoto create new art forms as well as tell brand new stories as well as improve their own videos.

In this piece, we'll cover some examples of how deepfake technology is being utilized for good in addition to suggestions on how to experiment using the technology yourself.

What's a fake fake?

A deepfake is a video, or audio recording, of a person whose face or body has been digitally changed. Deepfakes make use of AI to create likeness, relying on pattern recognition to match expressions, tone, and movements.

Some other definitions for a deepfake can include synthetic or artificial media, or AI-generated media.

 An overview of deepfakes

The creation of Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN) began the trend towards realistic fakes in 2014. GANs are made up of two artificial intelligence agents that create fake images and identify forgeries, allowing the AI to develop over time.

The creation of Deepfakes is also possible using a deep learning computer network, also known as a variational auto-encoder (VAE). VAEs can be trained to encode images to low-density representations of the subject, and later decode those representations into motion.

The phrase "deepfake" wasn't coined until 2017, and in 2018 media massed sounded the alarm over deepfakes and viral videos, with the first fake videos of Barack Obama and Donald Trump being shared across social media.

However, deepfakes have other uses which are getting increasingly relevant for everyday marketers and not only hackers or Internet trolls who want to disseminate false information.

How are fakes made to work?

Machine Learning AI is a critical component of the process of making a deepfake. Deepfakes depend on this tech to detect trends in images as well as information.

In order to create a fake video, the developer has to provide these machine learning algorithms with hours of footage. This then trains the deep neural networks to identify the patterns in tone, facial expressions, and other things. The next step involves combining those learnings with graphics.

It's not difficult to build a fake deepfake. only existing audio or video of who you're trying to imitate. Although it might be difficult at first creating a fake doesn't require complicated tools - just basic knowledge of graphic design and editing video skills.

Some examples of artistic video deepfakes

Marketers are at the beginning stages of adopting deepfakes and other AI technologies for video and digital marketing. The following deepfake examples don't precisely fit into the marketer's toolbox yet however, they demonstrate the potential of these AI technologies in the moment.

 1. Chris Shimojima's "Dolche - Big Man"

This breathtaking Staff Picked music video from the filmmaker Chris Shimojima takes deepfake technology and flips it on its head, using the faces of 14 performers (and 40 contributors) in a single narrative. It's an artistic and unexpected blend of technology and human emotion.

 2. David Beckham's many different

Malaria Must Die used AI to manipulate soccer star David Beckham to speak in 9 different languages. The campaign leveraged deepfake technology in order to create a big splash and dramatically increase their impact.

 3. Salvador Dali's museum greeting

It took over 1000 hours of machine-learning for the Dali Museum to arrive at their fake version of Salvador Dali just right. This is a new approach to museum visitors that gives them an opportunity to see things from a different angle and allows them to gain knowledge about art from the artist himself!

3 everyday uses for deepfake technology for video

While some applications of deepfakes are beyond an typical marketer's capabilities There are many innovative and exciting ways to leverage deepfake technology in your work.

• Repair sloppy lines in the post For anyone with any editing expertise, you know the trials and tribulations of cutting together clean audio recordings from a informal interview. If your interviewer misspoke, or simply didn't answer with the full length of a phrase, using the technology of deepfake to fill in blanks is an excellent way to keep your post-production process moving without the necessity of reshoots. (Just be sure to get the subject's permission first, of course!)
   
  
• Personalize customer videos on a large scale: Marketers can implement an easy way to personalize their video greetings or promotional videos that feature prospects' names or their company names. All you need is the names of your prospects and sufficient sound from the camera for deepfake tech to add it into any video.
   
  
• Translate your video Deepfake technology introduces a new world of easy translation. Instead of using subtitles, artificial intelligence can introduce spoken-language translations, either created from an audio bank or from the initial actor's voice.

Technology advances, and new possibilities

We may not know exactly about what future developments in AI is going to bring, but one thing is certain: deepfakes aren't going anywhere. Similar to other AI-powered technologies (chatGPT for instance? ) Anyone who is who are willing to play with deepfakes and be open to the potential for pitfalls will have the ability to compete in the changing world of video.