Jennifer Buscemi is the deepfake that should seriously frighten you

“As deep fake technology becomes more advanced and more accessible, it could pose a threat to United States public discourse and national security, with broad and concerning implications for offensive active measures campaigns targeting the United States,” the letter stated.

Researchers have already developed some methods for detecting deepfakes. One technique, which is said to have a 95 percent success rate in catching altered videos, relies on analyzing how often an individual in a video blinks.

“Healthy adult humans blink somewhere between every 2 and 10 seconds, and a single blink takes between one-tenth and four-tenths of a second,” Siwei Lyu, Associate Professor of Computer Science from the University at Albany, wrote in Fast Company last year. “That’s what would be normal to see in a video of a person talking. But it’s not what happens in many deepfake videos.”

Deepfakes, unfortunately, will only become harder to catch as time progresses. Lyu notes that the race between those generating and those detecting fake videos will only intensify in the coming years.

While lawmakers have focused heavily on the potential national security ramifications of deepfakes, some experts remain skeptical. Thomas Rid, professor of strategic studies at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, remarked on Twitter this month that fake news and conspiracy theories already thrive based on far less than altered videos. Rid, an expert on the history of disinformation, argues, however, that deepfakes could lead some to deny legitimate information based entirely on the fact that such technology exists.

“The most concerning aspect is, *possibly*, ‘deep denials,’ the ability to dispute previously uncontested evidence, even when the denial flies in the face of forensic artifacts,” Rid wrote.

Although fears concerning deepfakes and subversion from malicious foreign actors draw attention in the nation’s capital, fake videos could potentially cause much more damage to individuals. Granted, a fake video of a politician engaged in some sort of devious behavior could spread rapidly online before being debunked. But if a similar altered video is used to blackmail a vulnerable person, it’s likely no credible fact-checkers will be there to put out the fire.

The practice of targeting ordinary women with fabricated videos has already begun. In one such example, a woman in her 40s told the Washington Post that just last year someone had used photos from her social media accounts to create and spread a fake sexual video of her online.

“I feel violated—this icky kind of violation,” the woman said. “It’s this weird feeling, like you want to tear everything off the internet. But you know you can’t.”

And those unwilling to take the time to learn how to develop their own deepfakes can simply pay to have it done for them. A now-banned community on Reddit known as “r/deepfakeservice” was found to be selling such content in early 2018 to anyone willing to provide at least two minutes of source video.

Obviously, no one thinks Steve Buscemi and Jennifer Lawrence morphed together at the Golden Globes. But videos based on more believable premises with even higher quality are coming, and the damage they do will depend on how we react.

This article has been updated.