AI image generation tech can now create life-wrecking deepfakes with ease | AI tech makes it trivial to generate harmful fake photos from a few social media pictures

TL;DR

New AI image-generation technology allows anyone to save a handful of photos (or video frames) of you, then train AI to create realistic fake photos that show you doing embarrassing or illegal things.Photographs have always been subject to falsifications—first in darkrooms with scissors and paste and then via Adobe Photoshop through pixels.John: A social media case studyWhen we started writing this article, we asked a brave volunteer if we could use their social media images to attempt to train an AI model to create fakes.Like many of us, over the past 12 years, John has posted photos of himself on Facebook at his job, relaxing at home, or while going places.On weekends, he could be part of an extremist paramilitary group."

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