Science & Technology

The Incredible Creativity of Deepfakes — and the Worrying Future of AI | Tom Graham | TED

AI-generated media that looks and sounds exactly like the real world will soon permeate our lives. How should we prepare for it? AI developer Tom Graham discusses the extraordinary power of this rapidly advancing technology, demoing cutting-edge examples — including real-time face swaps and voice cloning — live from the TED stage. In conversation with…

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AI-generated media that looks and sounds exactly like the real world will soon permeate our lives. How should we prepare for it? AI developer Tom Graham discusses the extraordinary power of this rapidly advancing technology, demoing cutting-edge examples — including real-time face swaps and voice cloning — live from the TED stage. In conversation with head of TED Chris Anderson, Graham digs into the creative potential of this hyperreal content (often referred to as “deepfakes”) as well as its risk for exploitation and the new legal rights we’ll need in order to maintain control over our photorealistic AI avatars.

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86 Comments

  1. harsh (study)

    May 19, 2023 at 2:48 pm

    I ❤ when people scared from AI 😇

    • P. B. Foote

      May 19, 2023 at 9:04 pm

      I laugh when they’re not.

  2. Ak Ben

    May 19, 2023 at 3:05 pm

    So now TED is doing ads 🤔
    How can we know it’s fake? You can’t 😑 … now let’s talk about benefits

  3. Dominic Frain

    May 19, 2023 at 3:05 pm

    This isn’t funny

  4. Elizabeth Moriarty

    May 19, 2023 at 3:31 pm

    Besides having fun I’m not convinced that there are positive benefits to this technology. Creating loved ones to talk to will not help you deal with grief, it will just pull you away from the living world completely and consume you. Using anyone’s likeness without their explicit and informed permission is crossing a boundary. People have a right to their autonomy. It’s very different than creating a fictional character for artistic expression. This is not someone who looks like Tom Cruise or exaggerates his mannerisms. IT IS TOM CRUISE. And he has a right to say no I don’t want to participate in this Ted Talk.

  5. virtual mtk

    May 19, 2023 at 3:50 pm

    just another thing that no one needs.

  6. virtual mtk

    May 19, 2023 at 3:50 pm

    downsides are far more that the upsides.

  7. Rabih Zayed

    May 19, 2023 at 4:09 pm

    This is EVIL. This has to STOP. PERIOD!!!!

  8. J H

    May 19, 2023 at 4:12 pm

    We are living in a Simulation!

  9. LetoDK

    May 19, 2023 at 4:18 pm

    He never told us whether he has Tom Cruise’s permission. Regardless of how you might feel about Tom Cruise, he’s still just a person.

  10. Krish P

    May 19, 2023 at 4:33 pm

    I trained my own AI model yesterday which makes photos of me in any location with any clothes. It took 30 minutes. We are already at the point where nothing we see online can proven to be real for sure

    • P. B. Foote

      May 19, 2023 at 8:24 pm

      Eventually there’ll be AI to detect AI, especially deepfakes. But way down here at the consumer level, I don’t want to live like that. When you don’t know who or what to trust, you just might end up trusting nothing and no one. That’s gotta suck.

  11. areMiller

    May 19, 2023 at 4:54 pm

    This guy himself looks like an AI robot

  12. areMiller

    May 19, 2023 at 4:55 pm

    The second example looks trash

  13. Mary McLaughlin

    May 19, 2023 at 5:17 pm

    Why?

  14. Tiffany Greshler

    May 19, 2023 at 6:55 pm

    We need to grasp the “Power Of Now” (to quote Eckhart Tolle). To live in the moment – not chained to the past. And definitely not in a future that doesn’t exist. Obviously there are brilliant minds behind this tech. But for all that intelligence- how stupid and ignorant to claim that “decoupling human experience from where it happened and the moment in time that it happened” will allows us to understand ourselves better. What a joke. The hubris that it took to build this tech is out of control. Worse, the cavalier way in which these companies approach the immediate and immense dangers of deep fakes is utterly absurd. They will suffer the consequences of their creations.
    But sadly, we will too.

    • P. B. Foote

      May 19, 2023 at 9:01 pm

      Just because one CAN do something (and turn a profit), doesn’t mean one SHOULD (and turn a profit). Unless one is a greedy sociopath who’s interested in profit alone. Thank God we’ve none of THOSE malignant swine waiting in the wings.

  15. For An Angel

    May 19, 2023 at 7:42 pm

    The singularity will arrive sooner than you think.

  16. Samuel Zev

    May 19, 2023 at 8:00 pm

    There should be a law regulating deepfakes to have mandatory identifiable software signatures by law that can be used to distinguish between what is real and what’s altered.

  17. P. B. Foote

    May 19, 2023 at 8:16 pm

    The opportunities for skullduggery that AI presents seem almost limitless.
    Let’s all hope its continuing adaptation does more good than harm . . . like fossil fuels, chlorofluorocarbons or Thalidomide.

  18. Stephen Abracadabra

    May 19, 2023 at 8:19 pm

    Is this the beginning to the creation of The Matrix?

  19. Jake J

    May 19, 2023 at 8:20 pm

    Where’s Dudesy

  20. 47f0

    May 19, 2023 at 8:21 pm

    The reveal:
    This presentation never actually occurred.

  21. AJ Walker

    May 19, 2023 at 8:42 pm

    I’m concerned he never answered the question: can we copywriter our likeness or not? That’s the only concern I have. There would have to be legislation to reverse the TOS we all signed when we signed up for Facebook, Instagram, SnapChat, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube and any other place that allows us to upload photos or profile photos. 🤔 The horse has already left the barn, we are going to have to move quickly to enact some basic protections going forward.

    • P. B. Foote

      May 19, 2023 at 9:06 pm

      Thank God for a world of far-seeing and fast acting governments.

  22. U-Thought

    May 19, 2023 at 8:56 pm

    That’s amazing, and worrying 😢😅

  23. Siddharth Vashishtha

    May 19, 2023 at 9:03 pm

    The governments should just make this illegal. There are far more downsides to this than upsides.

  24. clusterstage

    May 19, 2023 at 9:17 pm

    Regulation will be irrelevant because of this.

  25. clusterstage

    May 19, 2023 at 9:22 pm

    Anyone watch the fiction series The Capture?
    Well, this is that, in real life, irl, fr.

  26. amanieux

    May 20, 2023 at 3:01 am

    great for ultra low bandwidth high res video chat

  27. korayem

    May 20, 2023 at 3:12 am

    Death creates legacy….
    Immortalizing celebrities like Tom Cruise means no new actors will surface ever again as we keep consuming “dead but famous” actors forever

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    May 20, 2023 at 3:37 am

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  29. BellabimbaXO

    May 20, 2023 at 4:57 am

    I think if we consider that digitalization has been super fast and things like cyber security or digital infrastructures already today have trouble keeping up, this whole Deepfake topic has come wayyy too early 😅

  30. glacier c

    May 20, 2023 at 5:35 am

    Can i ask for a goddamn pastry in a paris bakery without it being uncomfortable for everyone,

  31. CMW

    May 20, 2023 at 5:51 am

    Traditional photography will be making a comeback as something that can’t be faked so easily. If it’s not on film you can assume it’s generated.

  32. Fred Zacaria

    May 20, 2023 at 6:22 am

    so what’s happening from 4:40 to 5:10 ? Is the AI mimicking the woman’s body language and copying it into the man’s body? I didn’t quite get it.

  33. Buildings1772

    May 20, 2023 at 6:32 am

    if history wasn’t over before, it is now..

  34. Beacon Terra One

    May 20, 2023 at 7:43 am

    People nervously laughing at the demise of the human race.

  35. Hillbilly Murph

    May 20, 2023 at 8:16 am

    People get use to being in prison after a while too, that don’t make it ok.

  36. pref erence

    May 20, 2023 at 10:21 am

    We lived in a special short time in human history where reality could be captured & archived from everything all the time , thanks to proliferation of cameras everywhere. now that short era comes to end. We no longer can trust candid moments captured by someone’s phone, evidence from dash cam or cctv, etc.
    Reality! We had a good run with you for a brief time. Sad to see it ends so soon .
    Some might say it is liberating but even if that’s the case, we will have a very bumpy ride ahead of us, ithink

  37. Jh5578

    May 20, 2023 at 10:36 am

    “Technology moves faster than our ability to civilise it”

  38. j l

    May 20, 2023 at 1:14 pm

    We are designing an isolating pod world.

  39. Alfred Newman

    May 20, 2023 at 2:58 pm

    The worrying future of book reading. Read a book on the subje. Don’t let these guys pre-chew your thoughts!

  40. Regina Bash-Taqi

    May 20, 2023 at 3:02 pm

    I see no value in deep fake technology. The downsides far outweigh any potential benefits. Single teachers like Dr Dee already reach thousands of students with lessons on literature reviews. Ban it!

  41. Brandon Marcus

    May 20, 2023 at 3:07 pm

    What is the actual benefit of this and how is the downside not 100x in magnitude? So we can create synthetic versions of ourselves. Talent can scale itself more easily. So we can make videos more easily and efficiently. Great. A more efficient way to create amusements for ourselves and others. The potential harms from this are incalculable.

  42. Ric Cardo

    May 20, 2023 at 4:51 pm

    Authorities and power elites are trying to digitize our identities to better control us.
    Bottom line: they would never allow us to own our data.

  43. Ronie Henrich

    May 20, 2023 at 6:46 pm

    Hey Chris Anderson, fantastic talk! I laughed so hard that my pet parrot started imitating the Mona Lisa! 😄

    By the way, any chance you could translate the talk into Brazilian Portuguese? I’d love to show it to my mom, who’s convinced she can spot a Deepfake from a mile away. She’ll either be impressed or think it’s some next-level prank from her soap operas! Obrigado! 🇧🇷

  44. Alina Braverman

    May 20, 2023 at 7:37 pm

    Step 1:Delete your data from sites like White Pages, Peek You, Been Verified etc.
    Step 2: Never put your real age, DOB, or location online
    Step 3: Keep track of all images and with whom you shared them.

  45. CooZero

    May 20, 2023 at 8:20 pm

    *只能說小玉走得太前面…用錯方式了*

  46. Artifice-Ltd

    May 20, 2023 at 8:33 pm

    TLDW from your friendly neighborhood AI:
    AI developer Tom Graham discusses the extraordinary power and potential risks of rapidly advancing AI-generated media. He demonstrates cutting-edge examples, including real-time face swaps and voice cloning. The conversation with Chris Anderson, head of TED, explores the creative potential of hyperreal content, often referred to as “deepfakes,” as well as its potential for exploitation. They also discuss the need for new legal rights to maintain control over our photorealistic AI avatars.
    (You’re welcome, humans)

  47. Russell Reeves

    May 20, 2023 at 8:44 pm

    Wow I think millie and Vanille might make a come back

  48. CovocNexus

    May 20, 2023 at 10:16 pm

    It was amusing to listen to the man discuss a scenario where one could communicate with a loved one by utilizing a different representation of them. Fortunately, both the host and I shared a sense of unease towards the concept, mirroring my own initial reaction. – with the aid of ChatGPT.

  49. Naveen 9

    May 20, 2023 at 11:48 pm

    If fake concept is creative, real concept might be destructive. Terms DeepFake and Artificial Intelligence is coined for the facts of it. Purists cannot be blamed.

  50. Lucky Sharma

    May 21, 2023 at 3:29 am

    Tarun sir ki class se aye logo ka welcome

  51. TiT Records

    May 21, 2023 at 4:26 am

    My dad had me when he was older, after his passing I began to see pictures of him when he was younger and boy that had a profound impact on the way I saw the world, so I can see some advantages to this.

  52. Kim Anh Pham

    May 21, 2023 at 4:52 am

    Just a few things :
    1. What will be the future of evidences for crime investigation? I don’t think we are supposed to adapt to such a situation where we cannot trust anything.
    2. He talks so fondly about having images/avatars of your loved ones so similar to the actual person and being able to have ‘extensions’ like speaking another language or even existing after the person’s death. Am I the only one to find it tremendously violating the essence of a person being a person? It’s really creepy and it’s beyond the existential crisis that most of us have at some point during our lives and already struggle with.

  53. Jamie mitchell

    May 21, 2023 at 4:54 am

    There is only a monetry benefit in this, and nothing else. It stinks of trouble,!

  54. Rootsen Sneeky

    May 21, 2023 at 5:46 am

    fucking creepy

  55. 3co

    May 21, 2023 at 8:23 am

    rip to all the kids of today who have images of their whole lives online due to parents sharing on facebook or dumb trends posting themselves on tiktok. they could all be victim to this should anyone scrape a trove of data from social media to train an ai off of and use it for bad purposes, without any kind of consent for it. one of my greatest fears.

  56. Veronika M.

    May 21, 2023 at 8:29 am

    I’m sorry, but when he is asked about the upsides, it all just sounds like a BS. The downsides are much more scary and they can’t be compensated by “talking to your younger you” etc.
    I feel like someone should have had banned this a long time before or maybe asked the humankind – “Do you really want this? Is it ok if some people start working on this?”
    Some nerds who want to be famous began something that can’t be stopped and it’s gonna change the whole world. I’m really afraid of the consequences.

  57. THOMOS PARK

    May 21, 2023 at 8:50 am

    Who are hearing this conversation for improve English . If i am right please use like button for say “yes”

  58. Ibrahim Akar

    May 21, 2023 at 10:47 am

    Since the beginning of “accepting terms and conditions” of installing any software on a computer or using a cloud service, the vast majority of people do not read the terms and click “I accept “ almost immediately they see the chance to do so. We will give up our rights to our photos, voices and videos and we will no longer fully own this data and the big Tech companies will own these rights. We want and like free services and that’s how they will get us.

  59. ßpęřm

    May 21, 2023 at 11:44 am

    So TED talks is if Ted pays you, he gets to talk? 😅 lobby system?

  60. Raphaelsjr_

    May 21, 2023 at 12:49 pm

    Just accept the change for what it is. Why say we are screwed…. This is just an enhanced CGI And that has been around for years…

  61. Druuzil Tech & Games

    May 21, 2023 at 3:44 pm

    Transhumanism.

  62. Michael Flores

    May 21, 2023 at 7:35 pm

    Delete social media and only use AI avatars for “profile pics”

  63. moondawg

    May 21, 2023 at 9:57 pm

    Gotta love the awkward silences, like everyone in the room is aware of the disastrous potential this tech has. But like the guy said, there’s nothing to do about it. Quite an interesting future we have ahead of us.

  64. Benn Eden

    May 21, 2023 at 10:08 pm

    People should be able to own their image and voice. It’s a gross invasion and this kind of thing needs to be regulated immediately.

  65. 꿘구니

    May 22, 2023 at 1:21 am

    You guys need to know that Nuclear bomb was not developed for crime for the first time… I don’t trust people….

  66. codezero 101

    May 22, 2023 at 4:35 am

    All time is now.

  67. Shaxzod Tojinov

    May 22, 2023 at 6:25 am

    One thing, I couldn’t imagine, is this, what they are doing on stage, happening only our screens or what.. I couldn’t understand 😬

  68. Joeri

    May 22, 2023 at 7:18 am

    Weird and wonderful doesn’t sound so bad. Now take some time to think about all the good and bad ways this technology can and will be used: (I’m curious what you guys think)
    – Swaying elections by creating fake video’s of politicians. (This can be far more effective than the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica data scandal)
    – Misinformation campaigns form hostile countries.
    – Embarrassing and/or pornographic video’s of every famous person.
    – Blackmail, bullying, catfishing, fake dating profiles.
    – Phishing. Like getting a video’s of your own daughter asking for money or a loved one appearing to have been kidnapped.
    – Pretending to be the CEO of a large company in a conference call to manipulate the market.
    – Not being able to trust anything you see online even from trusted people.

    + Every movie/tv show/educational video in every language in the actors own voice.
    + Making funny, cute, sexy video’s of yourself and loved ones.

    + Being able to videocall to people who don’t speak your language.

  69. Joeri

    May 22, 2023 at 7:22 am

    Having rights and rules about the usage of your image is great, but most of the fake/creepy video’s will be made by teenagers who do not care and the damage will be done before they’re removed.

  70. macminista2003

    May 22, 2023 at 8:00 am

    What software do they use to create these videos?

  71. Ashish

    May 22, 2023 at 11:38 am

    It just makes me scared. Democracy is screwed. We can not have an informed public anymore.

  72. Jai Joshi

    May 22, 2023 at 12:14 pm

    Never did I think that I would be against technological advancements 😶

  73. S Mncwabe

    May 22, 2023 at 5:45 pm

    Why though?

  74. Hearty

    May 22, 2023 at 10:46 pm

    We are on the brink of the death of genuinity, honesty, and sincerity.
    And the death of appreciation for pure talents and raw human skills.

  75. João Solimeo

    May 23, 2023 at 7:58 am

    We probably have already given away these data of ourselves sometime ago and not even know it.

  76. teetee2812

    May 23, 2023 at 1:17 pm

    This is really spooky

  77. 인생은 무엇일까

    May 23, 2023 at 6:23 pm

    한국어 자막 감사합니다..
    잘 볼께요

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