Need to tell AI-made deepfakes from real pics? Call astronomers Premium

Astronomers develop groundbreaking technique using AI to spot deepfakes in photographs, presented at U.K. Royal Astronomical Society.

Using innovative strategies that astronomers use to identify the shape of distant, dim galaxies, Adejumoke Owolabi, a master’s student at the University of Hull, and her mentor Kevin Pimbblet, a professor of astrophysics and director of the Centre of Excellence for Data Science, Artificial Intelligence and Modelling at the University of Hull, have described a groundbreaking technique to spot deepfakes created by machine-learning artificial intelligence (AI) from genuine photographs.

Their research findings were presented at the U.K. Royal Astronomical Society’s National Astronomy Meeting on 15 July this year.

Deepfake concern

In what The New York Times described as the “First A.I. Election”, Argentina witnessed two rival candidates, Sergio Massa and Javier Milei, using artificial deepfake technology based on AI to create hyper-realistic video, audio, and pictures during their recent election campaigns.

Not too long ago, Russian cyber agents hacked into a Ukrainian television channel and created a deepfaked video of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. In the video, he was shown asking his compatriots to lay down their weapons, and it quickly went viral.

Why, during the recent general elections in India, unscrupulous actors used AI tools to create avatars of Indian politicians. Alarmingly, these avatars were manipulated to spread audio and video messages to undermine political rivals.

Others have used deepfake tools to defame actresses by creating pornography involving their images. Such manipulation can make it difficult for the people at large to distinguish real from counterfeit, trap them in insidious narratives and beliefs, and ultimately undermine trust in democratic institutions.