U.S. intelligence researchers eye $5 million program to encourage new technologies in detecting deepfakes
WASHINGTON – Members of Congress say they hope a $5 million prize competition will unlock the secret to automatically detecting deepfakes. C4ISRnet reports. Continue reading original article
The Military & Aerospace Electronics take:
8 Jan. 2020 -- The annual defense policy bill, which the president signed into law Dec. 20, called on the U.S. Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) to start the competition as a way to stimulate the research, development, or commercialization of technologies that can detect deepfakes automatically. Congress authorized as much as $5 million in cash prizes for the competition.
Deepfakes are machine-manipulated media that depict events that never happened. For example, many deepfakes commonly superimpose one individual’s face onto another’s person’s head as a way to deceive viewers into thinking the first individual said or did things that he or she never did. But the government’s broader view of deepfakes includes any digitally altered video, audio, or imagery that depicts something that does not exist or did not happen.
With the technology becoming more advanced and widespread, the Pentagon now views machine-manipulated media to be a national security issue. Military leaders imagine a digitally altered video that shows a national security leader giving orders they never gave or behaving unprofessionally could cause significant problems and confusion.
John Keller, chief editor
Military & Aerospace Electronics
