TechAITaylor Swift isn’t trying to sell you a frying panTaylor Swift wouldn’t appear in cookware firms' ads in their wildest dreams, but deepfakes could mean we’re heading for a cruel summerWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
TechAITaylor Swift isn’t trying to sell you a frying panTaylor Swift wouldn’t appear in cookware firms' ads in their wildest dreams, but deepfakes could mean we’re heading for a cruel summerWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
Taylor Swift wouldn’t appear in cookware firms' ads in their wildest dreams, but deepfakes could mean we’re heading for a cruel summer
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Taylor Swift Productions)
(Image credit: Taylor Swift Productions)
The ads have been everywhere in recent weeks, and while they’re not particularly well done they’re still quite clever: for example, deepfakes of Taylor Swift have been used to sell Le Creuset cookware, which is a brand we know she likes because there’s loads of it in her kitchen – something Le Creuset was quick to notice in her recentNetflixdocumentary, which the brand shared to its Facebook page.
These aren’t the first celebrity fakes we’ve seen in ads – for example gravel voiced singer Tom Waits successfully sued Frito-Lay in the 80s for using a sound-a-like to imply he was endorsing their potato crisps after he refused permission to use his music. But this is different, and it heralds what could be an – ahem – cruel summer of high-tech fraud.
Fake it off
Deepfake technology has improved incredibly quickly as part of the fast-paced development of generative AI systems. And that means it’s getting much more convincing – something that’s a worry as we go into election years in both the US and the UK.
The judge wasn’t convinced.But it hasn’t stopped multiple politicians and other bad actors from trying to claim that being caught red-handed is just AI fakery, the tech equivalent of yelling “fake news!” And Deepfakes are being used to warp reality. They were used to try and influence last year’s elections inSlovakiaand inBangladesh, and we’re starting to see themin the UK too.Alarm bells are already being soundedabout the danger to UK and US democracies from convincing audio, images or video of things that didn’t happen, with the goal of creating bad blood around specific politicians and parties.
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