Definition: deepfake

(DEEP learning FAKE) Fake content. With increasing advancements in computer performance and AI techniques, text, audio, images and videos created by AI are becoming more realistic every year. It is increasingly difficult to determine which content was created by humans or machine. See deepfake detector.

Video Deepfakes
Although face swapping has been done on images for more than a hundred years, face swapping on videos today can make anybody love, hate or say anything. For example, the video can be produced entirely with a human actor, whose face is then replaced with that of a celebrity, and it appears real to the casual viewer. See face swapping and FaceApp.

There are countless videos on the Web that show a real human making a long speech with seemingly appropriate mouth and body movements. This is done to make a written explanation of something more entertaining. However, when one observes the same hand gestures over and over and rather monotonous drone of the speaker, it becomes obvious that the presentation was computer generated. Videos are often created to have famous personalities take a stand that is either contrary to their philosophies or has nothing to do with what they think.

Serious Future Implications
As deepfake videos improve, there are ominous implications for the future. Videos are highly persuasive when they "supposedly" come from prominent people. Although computer analysis can likely determine a fake video even as they get more realistic, deepfake detection may be after the damage is done. See Reality Defender, fake news, fake website and fake fans.

Real or AI?

At the press reception in the HumanX AI conference in Las Vegas in 2025, journalists were given paddles to hold up as pairs of images were displayed on screen. It was not easy to tell which images were real. See HumanX.