
The term “deepfake” was first coined in late 2017 by a Reddit user of the same name. What is a deepfake?Ī deepfake refers to a specific kind of synthetic media where a person in an image or video is swapped with another person's likeness.
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Data manipulation today still relies on computers, but as the incident with the energy firm shows, the human voice - and, increasingly, video clips - are being used as a way to convince someone that what they’re hearing or seeing is real.Īnd while there might be an argument for using a deepfake for good, experts warn that without an understanding of them, a deepfake can wreak havoc on someone’s personal and professional life. The advent of the computer age meant a few clicks of a mouse could shrink a waistline or erase someone from a photograph. Soviet leader Joseph Stalin used censorship and image editing to control his persona and government in the early-mid 20th century. Ancient Romans chiseled names and portraits off stone, permanently deleting a person’s identity and history. “One should think of everything one puts out on the internet freely as potential training data for somebody to do something with.” “It’s a time to be more wary,” said Halsey Burgund, a fellow in the MIT Open Documentary Lab. What’s for certain, however, is that the technology for this type of crime does exist, and it’s only a matter of when the next attack will happen and who will be the target. An official with Euler Hermes said the thieves used artificial intelligence to create a deepfake of the German executive’s voice, though reports have since questioned the lack of supporting evidence. The €220,000 was moved to Mexico and channeled to other accounts, and the energy firm - which was not identified - reported the incident to its insurance company, Euler Hermes Group SA. executive had grown suspicious and did not make any more transfers.

The caller tried several other times to get a second round of money, but by then the U.K. News reports would later detail that the CEO recognized the “ slight German accent and the melody” of his chief’s voice and followed the order to transfer the money within an hour. In March 2019, the CEO of a U.K-based energy firm listened over the phone as his boss - the leader of the firm’s German parent company - ordered the transfer of €220,000 to a supplier in Hungary.
