Microsoft will help American politicians tackle fake videos in the run-up to the presidential elections. The software group has developed a tool that can recognize manipulated photos and videos.
Digital watermarks will soon make it possible to see on the internet whether images have been edited or created with the help of artificial intelligence (AI). Microsoft President Brad Smith made the announcement on the company’s blog. For the time being, the group will only offer the tool to presidential candidates and their campaign teams.
Deep fakes
Several ‘deepfakes’ have already emerged this year in the run-up to the elections. Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis was punished in June for publishing fake images of Donald Trump and his former chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci. In April, the Republican National Committee distributed a fake video of the impending demise of the US under President Joe Biden.
It remains to be seen whether politicians and their campaign teams will accept Microsoft’s offer. Although Microsoft has been warning about deepfakes for some time, the company is investing heavily in the technology that can be used to create the fake images. Microsoft recently invested $10 billion in OpenAI, the company behind Dall-E, which provides the software that can be used to edit images.
