What should marketers know about video deepfakes

If you've heard the term "deepfake," you might immediately think of the fraud, ethically questionable or downright disturbing videos which have swept across the internet over the last couple of years. As fake video content - - and the AI technology used to power these videos continue to get sophisticated, it's imperative that creators and marketers across every sector understand how they work and explore ways to use them in order to remain ahead in our changing climate.

For the uninitiated Deepfakes are fake media which have been digitally manipulated to replace or replicate a person's likeness convincingly, resulting in the capability to make videos which look and feel authentic yet aren't. Therefore, it's not surprising that they might get a bad rap for distributing false information or exploitation of individuals' appearances.

As with any other technology it's in the way you use it. Forward-thinking marketers and creators are already using deepfake technology and ethically legally and responsiblytoto develop new forms of art, tell new stories, and improve their own videos.

In this piece, we'll cover some examples of how deepfake technology is being utilized to good ends, as well as ideas on how to experiment using the technology yourself.

What's a fake?

A deepfake is a film or audio record of an individual whose appearance or body has been digitally altered. Deepfakes make use of AI to create likeness, by using patterns to identify facial appearance, tone as well as movement.

The other terms used to describe a fake can include synthetic or artificial media, or AI-generated content.

 A brief history of deepfakes

The development of Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN) began the trend towards realistic fakes in the year 2014. GANs consist of two AI agents which make fakes and recognize forgery which allows the AI to grow over time.

Deepfakes can also be created by using a deep-learning computer network called a variational auto-encoder (VAE). VAEs are trained to encode images into low-dimensional representations of the subject and then decode those representations and convert them into images that move.

The phrase "deepfake" was coined in 2017. In the year, the media almost collectively raised the alarm about fakes - with the first viral deepfake videos featuring Barack Obama and Donald Trump making the rounds through social networks.

But deepfakes also have uses that are becoming more and more relevant to everyday marketers - not just hackers or Internet trolls who want to disseminate false information.

How are fakes made to work?

Machine learning AI is a critical component of the process of making a deepfake. Deepfakes rely on this technology to detect trends in images and information.

To create a fake deepfake video, an artist needs to provide these machine learning algorithm with a lot of actual footage. This then trains the deep neural network to recognize tones, patterns, facial expressions, and more. The next step involves combining the learnings and graphics.

There's nothing difficult to create a deepfake, simply existing videos or audio of the person you're trying to imitate. While it could be difficult at first creating a fake requires no complicated tools - just basic knowledge of graphic design and video editing skills.

Examples of artful video deepfakes

Marketers are at the beginning stages of adopting deepfakes and other AI technologies to create video content and digital marketing. The following deepfake examples don't exactly fit into a marketing toolkit just yet However, they do demonstrate the power of these AI technology right now.

 1. Chris Shimojima's "Dolche Big Man"

This stunning Staff Picked music video from the filmmaker Chris Shimojima takes deepfake technology and turns it on its head, incorporating faces from 14 different performers (and 40 other contributions) to create a compelling narrative. It's an artistic and unexpected blend of technology and human emotion.

 2. David Beckham's multiple languages

Malaria Must Die used AI to alter soccer player David Beckham to speak in 9 different languages. The campaign leveraged deepfake technology to make an impact and markedly increase their campaign's reach.

 3. Salvador Dali's museum greeting

It took over 1,000 hours of machine learning for the Dali DaliMuseum to create their version of deep fake Salvador Dali just perfect. This innovation gives museum-goers an opportunity to see things from a different angle that allows them to get information about art directly from the creator himself!

Three common uses of deepfake technology for video

Although some of the applications for deepfakes might be out of the average marketer's reach There are many innovative and interesting ways to use deepfake technology in your job.

• Fix flubbed lines in post: If you have only a little editing knowledge, you know the trials and challenges of mixing clean audio recordings from a casual interview. If your interviewer misspoke, or simply didn't answer with the full length of a phrase, using the technology of deepfake for filling in blanks is a great way to keep your post-production process moving without the need for reshoots. (Just make sure you get consent from the person you're interviewing, of course!)
   
  
• Customize videos for customers in a mass scale Marketers can use simple personalization through sending video greetings or promotional videos that include prospect's names or the names of their companies. All you require is their names and enough audio recorded from your camera for the deepfake technology to incorporate it into any video.
   
  
• Translate your video Deepfake technology opens a new world of easy translation. Instead of using subtitles, artificial intelligence is able to add spoken, translated audio, either created from an audio library or the initial actor's voice.

New tech, new opportunities

It's impossible to know for certain what the future of AI will bring, but there is one thing that's for certain: deepfakes will not go away. Just as with other AI-powered technologies (chatGPT, anyone? ) People who are willing to experiment with deepfakes while keeping their eyes open to the potential for pitfalls will have the ability to succeed in the evolving technology of video.