Deepfakes worries YouTubers. Vidcon offers a way to push back

Not far from a frenzy of screaming tweers looking for online video stars, in a glass building overlooking Disneyland, VidCon will present a new celebrity to its pantheon: fake video known as deepfakes. But the ability to manipulate video to get anyone to do, well, whatever, people are pretty scared.

VidCon, which begins in earnest on Thursday, is the world's largest conference of online video creators and digital creators, but is best known for its swarm of fans. About 75,000 people are expected this year, with most tweens, teens and their parents invading the Anaheim, California, convention center, hoping to meet an idol online. The pockets of the huge crowd tend to be consumed spontaneously in a screaming crowd with the suspicion of an influencer nearby.

But this year, at the time of opening of the exhibition halls, the first thing on the agenda of VidCon is a presentation on the risks of deepfakes as part of a series panels and speeches.

"I basically think that this type of synthetic video will become more and more important for online video," said Jim Louderback, CEO of Vidcon. "I remember the time when we believed in photography, and in a few years we will say," I remember when we believed in video ".

Computer manipulation of video has been around for decades, but deepfakes are video fakes that can make people feel like they are doing things or saying things they never did, automatically generated with artificial intelligence. And thanks to the rapid advancements of deepfake technology, these trafficked clips become both easier to perform and more difficult to detect. At a time when even clumsy video manipulations, like a slow motion video of Nancy Pelosi, are effective tools of misinformation, the prospect of sophisticated deepfakes opens a mess of threats.

The VidCon event, titled "Deepfakes and Video Synthesis: Do not Panic, Get Ready", addresses the different audiences who attend VidCon, according to Sam Gregory, program director for the VidCon event. human rights advocacy organization, who directs the presentation.

One of the most damaging aspects of deepfakes right now is not misinformation, he said, but how deepfakes can allow people to get more rooted in the idea that all they do not want to believe is false. And it is there that intervene the most vaunted participants of VidCon.

"Creators have such a powerful role," Gregory said. "They can repel rhetoric, demystify and explain what's going on, and offer people practical things they could do in terms of media literacy."

(A request from Gregory: no one recommends flashing patterns as a deepfake detection trick.) To demonstrate the speed with which deepfake technology stays ahead of detection methods, algorithms adapted to this gap a few months later late, according to an academic article highlighting the blinking.)

For people who work in companies where deepfakes could become viral, Gregory wants to send a message stating that they need to determine how to identify synthetic media and "how to avoid moderation choices that do not turn around".

Although the fears about deepfakes are rather apocalyptic, most of the deepfakes currently seen publicly on gigantic platforms such as YouTube, Reddit or Facebook are harmless gaffes. One of our members immerses the face of actor Nicolas Cage in a potpourri of movies and TV shows in which he has never played, with him as Indiana Jones or every actor in Friends . Tweets sticking Steve Buscemi's cup Jennifer Lawrence or clips that graft The face of Elon Musk on a baby viral for their strangeness.

This period when viral deepfakes are generally harmless is one where social platforms should take over deepfakes as a threat, he said.

"There is a real opportunity to get ready here and to prepare in a way that, in my opinion, did not go well on the platforms in previous waves of misinformation," said Gregory.

Vidcon's industrial track, which addresses creators and people working in the online video industry, has more than 150 speakers and nearly 80 workshops this year. In total, this presentation of deepfakes accounts for about 2% of the entire industry programming, said Louderback.

But "I'm glad we were leading with this year's cover," Louderback said. But in a burgeoning world of synthetic media, the emergence of fully formed virtual influencers may well be the next unknown territory. "Who knows, maybe next year we will have a whole host of deeply rooted influencers and creators."

The story was published at 5 o'clock in the morning.
Update, 9h: Includes an extra background.