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Manipulated vision of a child swearing at the First Lady telling her to shut up has gone viral on social media.

The video doesn't appear to use any artificial intelligence and is just an audio dubbing which means it is a cheapfake not a deepfake. The original footage is from a Diwali speech the first lady gave at the White House.

The audio track is edited to include a child inappropriately screaming at a teacher, telling her to “shut the f*** up”  dubbed over the audio of Biden’s remarks. As for the vulgar remarks heard, the original footage is from a 2019 YouTube clip where the child swearing is seen taken out of the classroom for bad behaviour. 

The video was uploaded by a satirical Donald Trump account along with the caption “THANKS, KID!!!” With laughing emojis and has gained nearly 20,000 likes. Comments conclude that the clip is real and condone the child’s appalling behaviour.

The rude remarks, dubbed over unrelated vision, show a high level of disrespect as Biden speaks, however, it is clear the vision has been manipulated, especially at the end as the video is slowed down to make her reaction seem more dramatic. The video quality also deteriorates during the slow motion section.

Cheapfakes are growing increasingly dangerous as they are available to anyone with limited editing skills and technologies, especially in the lead up to US midterm elections.

A political group has created a deepfake ad targeting Mayor Adrian Perkins in north Louisiana in what’s believed to be the first time such technology has been used.

People Over Politics released the anti-Perkins parody ad. In the video, a lookalike ‘student’ who sounds similar and looks similar to Perkins is called to the principal's office after his report card is ‘failing Shreverport’. The principal awards him an F in keeping community safe, creating jobs and laughs when he asks about potential job offers.

The short clip discloses the content is a deepfake and not Perkins. Due to the satirical nature of the content, it is unlikely misleading with comments on social media claiming the commercial was funny. Political deepfakes are a major concern, especially close to election time as voting can be impacted due to digital manipulation.

A doctored video showing Jill Biden clapping and singing along to an anti Joe Biden chant has circulated online. 

The video is a cheapfake and has been digitally altered to replace the original audio with aggressive boos, profanities and a large crowd of people, swearing, cheering and clapping in unison in disdain for the President. On social media people label Jill a ‘fake doctor’ and say the election was ‘stolen by the dirty democrats and their tactics’.

The original clip, uploaded by the NFL shows the First Lady standing along cancer survivors to lead the ‘Fly Eagles Fly’ first song before the game. Everyone seems to be in good spirits and no profanities can be heard in relation to Joe Biden. 

On closer analysis to the doctored vision, it is clear the clapping and lip syncing is off with the anti-Biden chant. The smiles and hand gestures of each person in view simply doesn't suit the rude chant that can be heard or the pace the audio is being played at. The danger of cheapfakes and shallowfakes lie in the fact that they are very easy to create, unlike deepfakes they use no artificial intelligence and can comprise of recontextualizing, relabelling, slowing and speeding vision down and in this specific case, simply swapping one audio track for a totally different one.  

A young grime performer from Birmingham has been brought ‘back to life’ with deepfake technology in a bid to raise awareness of knife crime after he was murdered.

British 18-year-old, Joshua Ribera was stabbed outside a nightclub in 2003. His mum, Alison Cope now is an anti-knife campaigner. In a bid to make the teaching of youth violence compulsory in schools, she worked with various artists to create a deepfake AI video of ‘Depzman’ rapping about the effects knife-crime has on families.

Depzman toured with grime star Skepta where he built up a huge following in that scene. The high quality deepfake video cleverly uses AI technology to talk about heartbreak, destroyed families and tells kids to think twice before packing a knife. The video, released on SBTV, has spread on social media gaining more than a million views on TikTok and shared by rappers Jaykae, JME and Skepta. It was played on 65 prison TVs around the UK.

Who created the deepfake?

Alison Cope
Jamal Edwards

Was the content disclosed as a deepfake?

Yes

Was the deepfake consensual?

Yes

How was the deepfake created?

Deepfake Software
Video Editing
Voice cloning software
Lip syncing software  

Ukraine’s intelligence of the Ministry of Defense disrupted Russians’ deepfake attempt to discredit relationships with Turkey.

The Russian agents posed as Prime Minister, Denys Shmyhal of Ukraine, and tried to contact one of the founders of the Baykar defence company, which produces Bayraktar drones, Haluk Bayraktar via a live video call using deepfake technology.

A statement noted it was easy to debunk this case as the perpetrators reportedly had low levels of training and exposed themselves during the conversation by using incorrect Russian pronunciations of familiar Ukrainian phrases. The conversation with Bayraktar didn't go as expected. That's because the Russians were confronted by an intelligence operative who posed as Bayraktar’s press secretary. During the conversation he decided to agitate the imposters by asking them "What happened to the Crimean bridge?"

It is believed the purpose of this deepfake was an attempt to discredit cooperation between Ukraine and Turkey. At the end of the conversation, the Russian operatives were informed that they had been exposed and would be prosecuted.

Who created the deepfake?

Russian agents

Was the content disclosed as a deepfake?

No

Was the deepfake consensual?

No

How was the deepfake created?

Real-time video
Deepfake Software

Xinhua, China’s state news agency introduced AI anchors who will report “tirelessly” all day every day, from anywhere in the country.

A digital version of the news anchor dons a pin-striped suit with a red tie and realistically nods his head, blinks and raises his eyebrows. He boasts 24 hour news coverage every day of the year so he can bring the news to viewers no matter the scene. Another AI anchor was created to speak English and they both acknowledge they are wholly cloned and can provide the news once they are provided with text. Both were built using machine learning to simulate audio, facial expressions, and gestures of real-life people.

According to Xinhua, the AI technology has endless capabilities with examples of popular book reading apps telling stories from family members themselves one day.

Vision of the Chinese AI anchor quickly spread on social media with many viewers as impressed as they were alarmed. “A little bit horrible,” one said, to which another responded: “Really scary.” Xinhua are experimenting with the software as a way to lower production costs.

Who created the deepfake?

Xinhua
Sogou

Was the content disclosed as a deepfake?

Yes

Was the deepfake consensual?

Yes

How was the deepfake created?

Deepfake Software
Video Editing
Facial Recognition
Facial Modeling
Speech Synthesis Software

A breaking news deepfake video has circulated on social media spreading misinformation about Kyrsten Sinema who reportedly spoke on Bipartisanship then shortly after, enthusiastically introduced Donald Trump. 

The clip shows vision of Sinema holding up People magazine with a Fox 10 Phoenix news strap stating “Kyrsten Sinema appears with Donald Trump.” A PaulLeeTeeks watermark can be seen at the bottom right hand corner. The original video is from a 2015 presidential campaign rally in Las Vegas where a Trump supporter can be seen on the stage holding up the copy, not Sinema. 

The creator took to social media describing the deepfake as satirical in nature, addressing ‘newcomers’ who couldn’t grasp the concept of ‘political satire’ with profanities. “It’s fun, it’s funny – and if you’re being honest it’s not that far off from really happening,” Paul Lahticks said. The video is no longer online Lahticks’ Twitter account has been suspended. The response online is mainly negative with praise to NBC News Disinformation reporter, Ben Collins, alerting the public that this content is fake and generating high traction. Several people tweet they will be reporting the content and admitting on first glance it didn't appear fake, but some commended him on his previous parody work.

Who created the deepfake?

Paul Lahticks

Was the content disclosed as a deepfake?

No

Was the deepfake consensual?

No

How was the deepfake created?

Deepfake Software
Video Editing
File Footage

A veteran manga artist was swindled out of more than $500,000 by a scammer who claimed he was Mark Ruffalo.

Chikae Ide was contacted on Facebook by someone claiming to be the Bruce Banner-Hulk Avengers actor, who built an online romance and used deepfake technology for video calls. 

The fake Hollywood scammer asked for thousands of dollars claiming he had money troubles and needed cash for a plane ticket and hospital bills. Ide's daughter intervened to help stop the swindler. Ide reported the 3 1/2-year ordeal that cost her 75 million yen to a nearby police station in June 2021, the culprit is still yet to be found. 

The 74-year-old decided to turn her heartache into a novel and manga, Poison Love, in hopes of helping others realise the dangers of online international romance scams and also to make money to pay her friends back who she borrowed money from for the deepfake con artist.

Who created the deepfake?

Unknown

Was the content disclosed as a deepfake?

No

Was the deepfake consensual?

No

How was the deepfake created?

Real-Time Deepfake Software

There’s a video of Michael Grothaus attempting an armed robbery but the author explains this never happened and is in fact a deepfake that he commissioned.

The video shows the victim, a cyclist, whose head-mounted GoPro camera recorded the ordeal. Suddenly the clip shows Grothaus riding past on a motorcycle, pulling out a gun and forcing him to stop in his tracks and give him his rucksack, but the cyclist says he doesn’t understand Spanish, a language Grothaus can't speak in real life, but in the deepfake he masters it. He jumps off the bike and Grothaus chases him by foot with anxiety and fear on his face but the chase is stopped by a bystander who intervenes.
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Grothaus had the fortune of knowing the deepfake was coming. He commissioned it whilst researching his latest book, Trust No One: Inside the World of Deepfakes. He told the deepfaker he wanted to ‘commit’ a crime but knew nothing else so the element of surprise would be similar to that of an innocent civilian. He explains that anyone can be the next victim of deepfakery and that every second of video is made up of about 30 photos, which means for every minute of video posted to social media, the deepfaker has 1,800 photos of your face.

Who created the deepfake?

Unknown Deepfake Artist that was Commissioned

Was the content disclosed as a deepfake?

Yes

Was the deepfake consensual?

Yes

How was the deepfake created?

Deepfake Software
Video Editing
Existing footage provided from the internet

China’s state-run news agency, Xinhua released their latest news anchor Xin Xiaomeng, a computer generated model powered by advanced AI technology.

The AI news anchor perfectly delivers her message in Chinese, never missing a cue or stuttering and is based off human newsbroadcaster, Qu Meng. In the video she announces her professional debut will be in March. It’s unknown if she’ll speak in English too.

Who created the deepfake?

Xinhua

Sogou

Was the content disclosed as a deepfake?

Yes

Was the deepfake consensual?

Yes

How was the deepfake created?

Artificial Intelligence
Deepfake Software
Video Editing

Former Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, has blasted national broadcaster ABC News for editing footage to make it look like the Governor-General and Chief of Navy were watching dancers twerk during the commissioning service of the HMAS Supply. The truth is the dance performance happened before those two dignitaries even arrived.

The cheapfakes created a false impression as the shots selected and edited on television told a very different kind of narrative to the one that actually happened.

The Australian PM said he was very disappointed that the event was so misreported, dishonest and that these misleading standards have failed Australians.

Australia’s first satirical deepfake political advertisement was rolled out during the Queensland election.

Right-wing advocacy group Advance Australia posted a video using footage of Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk giving a press conference with a message saying: "If politicians were honest". However, the poor quality and strangely lit computer generated face gave it away as a fake video.

The creators make it comical and clear that the footage isn’t real – the video is captioned with a spoonerised version of the premier’s name: “Watch this fake press conference from Pannastacia Alaszczuk”. It also has a strap saying “not the LABOR PREMIER OF QLD”, and it concludes with a graphic saying “NOT ACTUALLY THE PREMIER OF QLD”. The fake Palaszczuk says "the state was well and truly cooked before the virus (covid-19) came along," and continued by saying "If you want to get rid of us I completely understand."

The advertisements were seen somewhere between 900,000 and 1 million times on social media, but it is unclear as to whether the video contravenes Meta's Manipulated Media policy, which bans a video that has been “edited or synthesized, beyond adjustments for clarity or quality, in ways that are not apparent to an average person, and would likely mislead an average person to believe that a subject of the video said words that they did not say”.

Who created the deepfake?

Advance Australia

Was the content disclosed as a deepfake?

Yes

Was the deepfake consensual?

No

How was the deepfake created?

Deepfake Software
Reface
Video Editing 

Donald Trump has retweeted a cheapfake video of a racist baby that has subsequently been taken off social media.

The video shows a white toddler chasing a black child down the street, alongside a CNN news strap that reads, “Terrified todler runs from racist baby.” (yes, toddler is spelt incorrectly in this fake news). The doctored video then ends by saying "America isn't the problem... Fake news is".

CNN was quick to debunk the fake news and shared the original story. Twitter labelled it as manipulated media as it was regarded deceptively altered or fabricated.

A Brazillian TV presenter had her image and voice falsified to spread disinformation in what is believed to be the first 'deepfake' the country has seen as the election campaign period kicks off this year.

The realistic yet doctored video mixes the voice of Renata Vasconcellos reporting from ‘Jornal Nacional’, with results of a false voting poll from old footage.

TV Globo confirmed that Renata’s video is not original and reported it. Ipec, an institute that conducts electoral polls and is cited in the 'deepfake', has denounced the material in the Misinformation Alert System.

The video spread quickly on social media – one clip found on YouTube had more than 1,400 views in just 12 hours and was already confusing voters. “Isn’t this research from 2018?”, asked a user in one of the post’s comments.

Donald Trump has capitalised on a doctored video that was created off the back of a political stunt by Nancy Pelosi.

While Trump was delivering a speech, Pelosi stood behind him and dramatically ripped up a copy of the President’s speech while he was speaking.

Soon after, an edited video emerged that made it look as if Pelosi was ripping up the speech in response to individual audience stories. Thus, the cheapfake retweeted by Trump, implied that the act was done to pour scorn on American citizens, as opposed to acting out in defiance of the President.

Social media platforms,  Facebook and Twitter, where the video has been shared and seen by many, were criticized for not removing the edited video as it did not 'violate their rules'.

The mayor of Berlin, Madrid and Vienna filed complaints over someone impersonating their counterpart in Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, during what was reported as a 'deepfake' video call. It was not in fact a deepfake it was just a look-alike.

Franziska Giffey, said 'he looked and sounded like Klitschko' on the Webex video conferencing platform that but that she grew suspicious when he spoke of Ukrainian refugees cheating the German state of benefits. He then appeared to call for refugees to be brought back to Ukraine for military service. The Berlin mayor’s office contacted the Ukrainian ambassador to Germany, who confirmed through authorities in Kyiv, that the person on the video call was not the real Klitschko. 

José Luis Martínez-Almeida grew suspicious soon after the start of the conversation and interrupted the call. The Madrid mayor’s office filed a complaint with the police.

Michael Ludwig took to Twitter to share news that he had talked via video call to Klitschko but the tweet was soon deleted. Shortly afterwards, the Austrian capital’s official account put out a statement that Ludwig appeared to have been the victim of a “serious case of cybercrime”.