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20 September 2024

How to spot the telltale signs of a deepfake

Chan Eu Imm

Amid growing global concern, Singapore has proposed a law to ban deepfakes of candidates during elections.

The rise of such content - digitally manipulated to look or sound like someone else - has contributed to the increasing difficulty of determining if something online is authentic.

Deepfakes have been used in scams involving political office holders – from United States president Joe Biden to Singapore’s past and present Prime Ministers – as well as celebrities like Taylor Swift. They’ve also been used to generate pornographic material – which make up more than 90 per cent of deepfake videos online.

Ms Ong Si Ci, a lead engineer in Artificial Intelligence and machine learning at Singapore’s HTX, or Home Team Science and Technology Agency, breaks down for CNA the ways to spot a deepfake, how to protect oneself from becoming a victim, and the effectiveness of banning such altered content.

How to identify deepfakes?

They typically have a few telltale signs, according to Ms Ong:
  1. Excessive blurring or inconsistencies around the edges of a face
  2. Inconsistent skin tone or lighting around the face, compared with other regions of the face or surrounding conditions
  3. Poor synchronisation between audio and video
  4. In a speech, an unnatural, monotonous way of speaking

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