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Determine Credibility (Evaluating)

Using credible and relevant sources is important. Learn what questions to ask and some strategies to apply for determining if your source is or isn't appropriate for your project.

What are deepfakes?

Deepfakes are phony audio or videos manipulated by Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology. It isn't just photoshop or face swapping-- deepfakes are used to make individuals appear as though they are doing or saying something they never did. Watch the video below to learn more.

Spotting Deepfakes

Identifying deepfakes can be challenging without the assistance of emerging technologies. When watching a video that seems suspicious, follow this advice from MIT Media Lab:

  1. Pay attention to the face. High-end DeepFake manipulations are almost always facial transformations. 
  2. Pay attention to the cheeks and forehead. Does the skin appear too smooth or too wrinkly? Is the agedness of the skin similar to the agedness of the hair and eyes? DeepFakes are often incongruent on some dimensions.
  3. Pay attention to the eyes and eyebrows. Do shadows appear in places that you would expect? DeepFakes often fail to fully represent the natural physics of a scene. 
  4. Pay attention to the glasses. Is there any glare? Is there too much glare? Does the angle of the glare change when the person moves? Once again, DeepFakes often fail to fully represent the natural physics of lighting.
  5. Pay attention to the facial hair or lack thereof. Does this facial hair look real? DeepFakes might add or remove a mustache, sideburns, or beard. But, DeepFakes often fail to make facial hair transformations fully natural.
  6. Pay attention to facial moles.  Does the mole look real? 
  7. Pay attention to blinking. Does the person blink enough or too much? 
  8. Pay attention to the size and color of the lips. Does the size and color match the rest of the person's face?

Try it out! Can you Detect Fakes?

Remember that even if you can't identify whether the video is a deepfake just by watching it, you can use SIFT to find out more information and determine if the video is trustworthy.