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Had to choose between checking a deep fake by eye or using a detection app last week

A family member sent me a video of a politician saying something pretty outrageous. I spent about 20 minutes looking at the lip sync and lighting myself but couldn't decide if it was real. Then I ran it through a free detection tool and it showed a 94% chance of being fake. The app caught weird pixel glitches around the jaw that I missed completely. Has anyone else found detection software more reliable than just watching carefully?

3 comments

3 Comments

max_cooper219d ago

The detection app finding those tiny pixel glitches you missed is actually a good example of a bigger thing I've noticed lately. Our eyes get fooled by good fakes way easier than we want to admit, especially when the content already triggers an emotional reaction. I've started running suspicious images through a reverse image search before even looking closely because my brain just fills in details that aren't there. It's like how people used to swear they saw a UFO when it was really just a weather balloon - our pattern recognition is too eager to find what we expect. Detection software is boring but brutal, it just counts pixels and doesn't care about what the video is saying. I'd trust a boring app over my own eyes any day now, the gap between what we see and what's real is getting wider by the month.

fiona_kim979d ago

@max_cooper21 nailed it with the brain filling in details thing. I've started keeping a list of free detection tools bookmarked on my phone for exactly this reason - saves time and catches stuff my eyes just won't. Running it through something boring and pixel-focused is way faster than second-guessing myself for 20 minutes.

charles8369d ago

Yeah the "boring and pixel-focused" thing is exactly right. I keep a couple of those tools saved on my phone too, but what really helped me was turning off auto-play on social media. Forces me to pause and check before my brain starts filling in stuff that isn't there.