A NEW generation of AI-designed deep fakes has upped the ante on how difficult it is to spot manipulated images and video.
From a first-person perspective of rushing through a lush green rainforest to a bird’s eye view of an abandoned town, AI startup Runway demonstrated on Monday how the latest wave of artificially generated video tech is reaching new heights.
“Introducing Gen-3 Alpha: Runway’s new base model for video generation,” the company shared on the social media platform X.
“Gen-3 Alpha can create highly detailed videos with complex scene changes, a wide range of cinematic choices, and detailed art directions,” they said.
In one short and punchy clip, viewers can watch a close-up scene of a bald man’s face as he becomes excited before getting a wig — and the quality is stunning.
“Prompt: A middle-aged sad bald man becomes happy as a wig of curly hair and sunglasses fall suddenly on his head,” Runway wrote alongside the video in a post.
The detail of the man’s expressions is incredibly nuanced, especially as viewed in slow motion.
The AI-generated character’s joy at receiving the wig on his naked head appears very realistic and aligns with the silliness of the red color and curly texture of the wig.
The man’s clear and natural transition between emotions is a big improvement over previous AI video generation systems available publically.
AI fanatics agreed with Runway — the upgraded model is awesome in its capabilities.
“This is insane. We’ll be able to download an app to make a movie about something we want very soon,” one user wrote on Reddit (r/aivideo).
“Even if these are cherry-picked, they already look better than Sora,” a second person said, referring to another AI video-generating model.
Some people said they were intimidated by the shocking realism of the videos.
“Oh god, this should not exist,” one user replied.
“We’re actually going to be able to see what magic would look like if it were real… Jeeze,” a second added.
Many people were particularly impressed with the clip of the man getting the wig.
“The bald guy with the wig conveyed three stages of emotion from one prompt: sad, surprise, happiness,” one fan wrote.
“That’s the true game changer here.”
Here’s what Sean Keach, Head of Technology and Science at The Sun and The U.S. Sun, has to say…
The rise of deepfakes is one of the most worrying trends in online security.
Deepfake technology can create videos of you even from a single photo – so almost no one is safe.
But although it seems a bit hopeless, the rapid rise of deepfakes has some upsides.
For a start, there’s much greater awareness about deepfakes now.
So people will be looking for the signs that a video might be faked.
Similarly, tech companies are investing time and money in software that can detect faked AI content.
This means social media will be able to flag faked content to you with increased confidence – and more often.
As the quality of deepfakes grow, you’ll likely struggle to spot visual mistakes – especially in a few years.
So your best defence 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 have faked – and who benefits from you seeing this clip?
If you’re being told something alarming, a person is saying something that seems out of character, or you’re being rushed into an action, there’s a chance you’re watching a fraudulent clip.
The Gen-3 Alpha is not without room for improvement, however.
Even its own developers only gave the man-with-a-wig clip a 7/10 rating for fidelity and realism.
There are a few obvious signs that this may be a deep fake — can you spot them?
Viewers carefully watching the clip will notice that the lighting in the man’s mouth becomes distorted in unnatural ways towards the end.
They may also notice that rogue hairs seem to be floating around the man’s head after the wig has plopped down.
Another sign that the video was AI-generated can be found in the man’s neck — a crease on the right side darkens strangely as he stretched upwards.
