How can you spot political deepfakes? [Video]

A digital forensics expert has answers for you about political deepfakes ahead of this year’s election.

Every day someone asks Hany Farid, a University of California, Berkeley professor of electrical engineering and computer science and in the School of Information, to review images, audio, and videos to determine if they are real or fake.

As one of the world’s leading experts on digital manipulation and misinformation, his views and verification skills are in high demand.

With elections being held around the globe this year, including the presidential election in the United States, he’s been especially busy using digital forensic tools to verify or debunk political misinformation as it spreads in real time.

The rapid advances of generative artificial intelligence have only complicated his job. As he points out, the ability to make anyone say words that they didn’t utter, appear in photos they were never present for, or to wholecloth create a politically charged fiction with a few keystrokes on a computer …