Arab Press

بالشعب و للشعب
Friday, Aug 22, 2025

'Deepfake is the future of content creation'

'Deepfake is the future of content creation'

A few months ago, millions of TV viewers across South Korea were watching the MBN channel to catch the latest news.

At the top of the hour, regular news anchor Kim Joo-Ha started to go through the day's headlines. It was a relatively normal list of stories for late 2020 - full of Covid-19 and pandemic response updates.

Yet this particular bulletin was far from normal, as Kim Joo-Ha wasn't actually on the screen. Instead she had been replaced by a "deepfake" version of herself - a computer-generated copy that aims to perfectly reflect her voice, gestures and facial expressions.

Viewers had been informed beforehand that this was going to happen, and South Korean media reported a mixed response after people had seen it. While some people were amazed at how realistic it was, others said they were worried that the real Kim Joo-Ha might lose her job.

MBN said it would continue to use the deepfake for some breaking news reports, while the firm behind the artificial intelligence technology - South Korean company Moneybrain - said it would now be looking for other media buyers in China and the US.

When most people think of deepfakes, they imagine fake videos of celebrities. In fact, only last week one such bogus - but very lifelike - video of Tom Cruise made headlines around the world after it appeared on TikTok.

The deepfake video of Tom Cruise was ultimately removed from TikTok, but the account that placed it remains there

Despite the negative connotations surrounding the colloquial term deepfakes (people don't usually want to be associated with the word "fake"), the technology is increasingly being used commercially.

More politely called AI-generated videos, or synthetic media, usage is growing rapidly in sectors including news, entertainment and education, with the technology becoming increasingly sophisticated.

One of the early commercial adopters has been Synthesia, a London-based firm that creates AI-powered corporate training videos for the likes of global advertising firm WPP and business consultancy Accenture.

"This is the future of content creation," says Synthesia chief executive and co-founder Victor Riparbelli.

To make an AI-generated video using Synthesia's system you simply pick from a number of avatars, type in the word you wish for them to say, and that is pretty much it.

Synthesia's users pick from a number of avatars

Mr Riparbelli says this means that global firms can very easily make videos in different languages, such as for in-house training courses.

"Let's say you have 3,000 warehouse workers in North America," he says. "Some of them speak English, but some may be more familiar with Spanish.

"If you have to communicate complex information to them, a four-page PDF is not a great way. It would be much better to do a two or three-minute video, in English and Spanish.

"If you had to record every single one of those videos, that's a massive piece of work. Now we can do that for [little] production costs, and whatever time it'll take someone to write the script. That pretty much exemplifies how the technology is used today."

Mike Price, the chief technology officer of ZeroFox, a US cyber-security company that tracks deepfakes, says their commercial use is "growing significantly year over year, but exact numbers are difficult to pin down".

However, Chad Steelberg, chief executive of Veritone, a US AI technology provider, says that the increasing concern about malicious deepfakes is holding back investment in the technology's legitimate, commercial use.

"The term deepfakes has definitely had a negative response in terms of capital investment in the sector," he says. "The media and consumers, rightfully so, can clearly see the risks associated.

"It has definitely hindered corporations as well as investors from piling into the technology. But I think you are starting to see that crack."

Mike Papas, chief executive of Modulate, an AI firm that allows users to create the voice of a different character or person, says that firms in the wider commercial synthetic media sector "really care about ethics".

"It amazing to see the depth of thought these people put into it," he says. "That has ensured that investors also care about that. They're asking about ethics policies, and how you're thinking about it."

Lilian Edwards, professor of law, innovation and society at Newcastle Law School, is an expert on deepfakes. She says that one issue surrounding the commercial use of the technology that hasn't been fully addressed is who owns the rights to the videos.

"For example, if a dead person is used, such as [the actor] Steve McQueen or [the rapper] Tupac, there is an ongoing debate about whether their family should own the rights [and make an income from it]," she says.

"Currently this differs from country to country."

Deborah Johnson, professor of applied ethics, emeritus, at the University of Virginia, recently co-wrote an article entitled "What To Do About Deepfakes?".

She says: "Deepfakes are part of the larger problem of misinformation that undermines trust in institutions and in visual experience - we can no longer trust what we see and hear online.

"Labelling is probably the simplest and most important counter to deepfakes - if viewers are aware that what they are viewing has been fabricated, they are less likely to be deceived."

Prof Sandra Wachter, a senior research fellow in AI at Oxford University, says that deepfake technology "is racing ahead".

Prof Sandra Wachter says the response to deepfakes needs to be "nuanced"

"If you watched the Tom Cruise video last week, you can see how good the technology is getting," she says. "It was far more realistic than the President Obama one from four years ago.

"We shouldn't get too fearful of the technology, and there needs to be a nuanced approach to it. Yes there should be laws in place to clamp down on bad and dangerous things like hate speech and revenge porn. Individuals and society should be protected from that.

"But we shouldn't have an outright ban on deepfakes for satire or freedom of expression. And the growing commercial use of the technology is very promising, such as turning movies into different languages, or creating engaging educational videos."

One such educational use of AI-generated videos is at the University of Southern California's Shoah Foundation, which houses more than 55,000 video testimonies from Holocaust survivors.

A Holocaust survivor with his avatar at the Shoah Foundation

Its Dimensions In Testimony project allows visitors to ask questions that prompt real-time responses from the survivors in the pre-recorded video interviews.

Mr Steelberg says that in the future such technology will enable grandchildren to have conversations with AI versions of deceased elderly relatives. "That's game changing, I think, for how we think about our society."

Newsletter

Related Articles

Arab Press
0:00
0:00
Close
Dogfights in the Skies: Airbus on Track to Overtake Boeing and Claim Aviation Supremacy
Tim Cook Promises an AI Revolution at Apple: "One of the Most Significant Technologies of Our Generation"
Are AI Data Centres the Infrastructure of the Future or the Next Crisis?
Miles Worth Billions: How Airlines Generate Huge Profits
Zelenskyy Returns to White House Flanked by European Allies as Trump Pressures Land-Swap Deal with Putin
Beijing is moving into gold and other assets, diversifying away from the dollar
Trump Backs Putin’s Land-for-Peace Proposal Amid Kyiv’s Rejection
Zelenskyy to Visit Washington after Trump–Putin Summit Yields No Agreement
Iranian Protection Offers Chinese Vehicle Shipments a Cost Advantage over Japanese and Korean Makers
United States Sells Luxury Yacht Amadea, Valued at Approximately $325 Million, in First Sale of a Seized Russian Yacht Since the Invasion of Ukraine
Saudi Arabia accelerates renewables to curb domestic oil use
Cristiano Ronaldo and Georgina Rodríguez announce engagement
Asia-Pacific dominates world’s busiest flight routes, with South Korea’s Jeju–Seoul corridor leading global rankings
Private Welsh island with 19th-century fort listed for sale at over £3 million
Sam Altman challenges Elon Musk with plans for Neuralink rival
Australia to Recognize the State of Palestine at UN Assembly
The Collapse of the Programmer Dream: AI Experts Now the Real High-Earners
Armenia and Azerbaijan to Sign US-Brokered Framework Agreement for Nakhchivan Corridor
British Labour Government Utilizes Counter-Terrorism Tools for Social Media Monitoring Against Legitimate Critics
WhatsApp Deletes 6.8 Million Scam Accounts Amid Rising Global Fraud
Texas Residents Face Water Restrictions While AI Data Centers Consume Millions of Gallons
India Rejects U.S. Tariff Threat, Defends Russian Oil Purchases
United States Establishes Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and Digital Asset Stockpile
Thousands of Private ChatGPT Conversations Accidentally Indexed by Google
China Tightens Mineral Controls, Curtailing Critical Inputs for Western Defence Contractors
JPMorgan and Coinbase Unveil Partnership to Let Chase Cardholders Buy Crypto Directly
British Tourist Dies Following Hair Transplant in Turkey, Police Investigate
WhatsApp Users Targeted in New Scam Involving Account Takeovers
Trump Deploys Nuclear Submarines After Threats from Former Russian President Medvedev
Germany’s Economic Breakdown and the Return of Militarization: From Industrial Collapse to a New Offensive Strategy
Germany Enters Fiscal Crisis as Cabinet Approves €174 Billion in New Debt
IMF Upgrades Global Growth Forecast as Weaker Dollar Supports Outlook
Politics is a good business: Barack Obama’s Reported Net Worth Growth, 1990–2025
UN's Top Court Declares Environmental Protection a Legal Obligation Under International Law
"Crazy Thing": OpenAI's Sam Altman Warns Of AI Voice Fraud Crisis In Banking
Japanese Prime Minister Vows to Stay After Coalition Loses Upper House Majority
President Trump Diagnosed with Chronic Venous Insufficiency After Leg Swelling
Man Dies After Being Pulled Into MRI Machine Due to Metal Chain in New York Clinic
FIFA Pressured to Rethink World Cup Calendar Due to Climate Change
Iranian President Reportedly Injured During Israeli Strike on Secret Facility
Kurdistan Workers Party Takes Symbolic Step Towards Peace in Northern Iraq
BRICS Expands Membership with Indonesia and Ten New Partner Countries
Elon Musk Founds a Party Following a Poll on X: "You Wanted It – You Got It!"
AI Raises Alarms Over Long-Term Job Security
Russia Formally Recognizes Taliban Government in Afghanistan
Saudi Arabia Maintains Ties with Iran Despite Israel Conflict
Mediators Edge Closer to Israel-Hamas Ceasefire Agreement
Germany Seeks Taliban Deal to Deport Afghan Migrants
Emirates Airline Expands Market Share with New $20 Million Campaign
Robots Compete in Football Tournament in China Amid Injuries
×