The god illusion: why the pope is so popular as a deepfake image; The Guardian, December 21, 2024

Dan Milmo , The Guardian; The god illusion: why the pope is so popular as a deepfake image

"The pope is an obvious target for deepfakes, according to experts, because there is such a vast digital “footprint” of videos, images and voice recordings related to Francis. AI models are trained on the open internet, which is stuffed with content featuring famous public figures, from politicians to celebrities and religious leaders.

“The pope is so frequently featured in the public eye and there are large volumes of photos, videos, and audio clips of him on the open web,” said Sam Stockwell, a research associate at the UK’s Alan Turing Institute.

“Since AI models are often trained indiscriminately on such data, it becomes a lot easier for these models to replicate the facial features and likeness of individuals like the pope compared with those who don’t have such a large digital footprint.”"

Likenesses Of Michael Douglas, Amy Schumer And Chris Rock Warn Voters Of Election “Deepfakes” In New PSA; Deadline, October 22, 2024

Ted Johnson , Deadline; Likenesses Of Michael Douglas, Amy Schumer And Chris Rock Warn Voters Of Election “Deepfakes” In New PSA

"A new public service announcement featuring likenesses of celebrities including Michael Douglas, Chris Rock and Amy Schumer aims to warn voters about AI deepfakes, including those that could be unleashed on Election Day to try to suppress the vote.

The spot is from RepresentUS, a nonpartisan anti-corruption organization that includes figures like Ed Helms and Jennifer Lawrence on its board."

‘It’s not me, it’s just my face’: the models who found their likenesses had been used in AI propaganda; The Guardian, October 16, 2024

 Manisha Ganguly, The Guardian; ‘It’s not me, it’s just my face’: the models who found their likenesses had been used in AI propaganda

"These videos are fake. They were generated with artificial intelligence (AI) developed by a startup based in east London. The company, Synthesia, has created a buzz in an industry racing to perfect lifelike AI videos. Investors have poured in cash, catapulting it into “unicorn” status – a label for a private company valued at more than $1bn.

Synthesia’s technology is aimed at clients looking to create marketing material or internal presentations, and any deepfakes are a breach of its terms of use. But this means little to the models whose likenesses are behind the digital “puppets” that were used in propaganda videos such as those apparently supporting Burkina Faso’s dictator. The Guardian tracked down five of them."

Trump posts deepfakes of Swift, Harris and Musk in effort to shore up support; The Guardian, August 19, 2024

Nick Robins-Early, The Guardian ; Trump posts deepfakes of Swift, Harris and Musk in effort to shore up support

"Donald Trump shared several AI-generated images of Taylor Swift and her fans vowing their support for his presidential campaign on Sunday, reposting them with the caption “I accept!” on his Truth Social platform. The deepfakes are part of a slew of images made with artificial intelligence that the former president has disseminated in recent days straddling the line between parody and outright election disinformation."