Defeating Deepfakes: Ginger Liu of Ginger Media & Entertainment How We Can Identify Convincingly Real Fake Video, Pictures, and Writing, And How We Can Push Back
Fake video can sometimes look more like a lifelike animation or video game, human skin can look too smooth. But in a short period of time, it’s more and more difficult to spot.
Most of us are very impressed with the results produced by generative AI like ChatGPT, DALL-E and Midjourney. Their results are indeed very impressive. But all of us will be struggling with a huge problem in the near future. With the ability for AI to create convincingly real images, video, and text, how will we know what is real and what is fake, what is reality and what is not reality? See this NYT article for a recent example. This is not just a problem for the future; it is already a struggle today. Media organizations are struggling with a problem of fake people, people with AI-generated faces and AI-generated text, applying to do interviews. This problem will only get worse as AI gets more advanced. In this interview series, called “Defeating Deepfakes: How We Can Identify Convincingly Real Fake Video, Pictures, and Writing, And How We Can Push Back,” we are talking to thought leaders, business leaders, journalists, editors, and media publishers about how to identify fake text, fake images and fake video, and what all of us can do to push back against disinformation spread by deepfakes. As a part of this series we had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Ginger Liu.
Ginger Liu is a Ph.D. researcher in photography and artificial intelligence. She holds an MFA in Photography and a BA (Hons) in Contemporary Media Practice. Her practice, research, and writing addresses family portraiture, bereavement, and the afterlife and compares the Victorian era of a new technology called photography to the new revolution of artificial intelligence and the emergence of a digital afterlife.
Ginger hosts a podcast called the ‘Digital afterlife of Grief’, which explores Artificial Intelligence, Art, and Entertainment. In the podcast, Ginger discusses how technology from Photography to AI has shaped human agency, how we grieve, and post-death.
Thank you so much for joining us. Before we dive in, our readers would love to ‘get to know you’ a bit better. Can you share with us the “backstory” about how you got started in your career?
Can you share the most interesting story that occurred to you in the course of your career?
The recession of 2007–8 because there were no jobs and it forced me to do what I’d wanted to do for years but was too scared. And that was, start my own business. Without the cushion of a job, I created my own work and founded a company.
It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that? When I started my business, I researched everything I could but then I just had to learn on job and a lot of the time in those first months, I was winging it. When you see on TV drama how the protagonist wings it to get a job, that was me. And if got something wrong, I knew not to do it again.
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?
The Digital Afterlife of Grief is a multimedia project currently on podcast but there will be a film developed about the issues of AI death tech technology and how we deal with grief.
For the benefit of our readers, can you share why you are an authority about the topic of Deepfakes?
I am a Phd researcher in photography and AI.
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now shift to the main parts of our interview. Let’s start with a basic set of definitions so that we are all on the same page. Can you help define what a “Deepfake” is? How is it different than a parody or satire?
AI can create deepfakes using generative adversarial networks (GANs). A GAN is produced by two AI systems working together. One system creates a copy of an image using new data, and the other system determines if the data is real or fake. Both systems create eerily lifelike images like the Tik Tok videos of Tom Cruise, question our sense of reality, as well as raise security issues.
Can you help articulate to our readers why Deepfakes should be a serious concern right now, and why we should take measures to identify them?
There’s a massive deepfake porn industry and celebrities such as Taylor Swift have tried to take it off the internet. But for everyday people without Swift’s recourses, it is impossible to remove this content until the laws catch up with the technology and have the power and infrastructure to shut it down. Obviously, we have the US elections coming up and the internet is a wild west of disinformation and deepfakes which are so realistic will harm the democratic process. Then we come to deepfake fraud and how deepfakes can swindle businesses and everyday people out of their money.
Why would a person go to such lengths to create a deepfake? How exactly can malicious actors benefit from making them?
The technology is so democratized now and such a short period of time that anyone can create a deepfake and can con you out of your life savings, use images to blackmail, mess with how you want to vote.
Can you please share with our readers a few ways to identify fake images?
It’s getting more difficult to detect. It is better to question what you see, do your research, and be on guard.
Similarly, can you please share with our readers a few ways to identify fake audio?
Synthetic audio is mind blowing. I recorded my voice for 17 seconds and I have used it to record text and I can’t tell it isn’t me. That’s how good it is.
Next, can you please share with our readers a few ways to identify fake text?
Generative AI text can be a bit flowery and some of the phrases used are a bit odd and clunky. I would suggest experimenting with AI text generating platform to get a feel for the text it recreates, and you will be able to spot the fakes online.
Finally, can you please share with our readers a few ways to identify fake video?
Fake video can sometimes look more like a lifelike animation or video game, human skin can look too smooth. But in a short period of time, it’s more and more difficult to spot.
How can the public neutralize the threat posed by deepfakes? Is there anything we can do to push back?
Do your research and stay informed. Double check the information you see or hear. Always get your news from reputable news platforms and experts.
This is the signature question we ask in most of our interviews. Can you share your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started” and why? Please share a story or an example for each.
1 . How easy it is to start your own business. I wanted to work for myself for years but when you’re young, you’re pushed into working for someone else. I would have loved to have been my own boss straight out of university.
2 . I wish I’d known that no one knows what they are doing at first and everyone starts from this position.
3 . That it’s okay to be myself and go my own way. When you’re young, you crave to belong and follow the crowd. Be yourself, do your own thing, find your worth.
4 . That education isn’t everything. Learning by doing is just as valuable.
5 . That work doesn’t have to take over your life. Find what you love and do it but also take time to enjoy the world. We have a brief moment to really live our lives and most of us are stuck somewhere. Create a balanced life.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the greatest amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
To change the mindset that passing an exam equals intelligence and therefore, acceptance into education and work. So many people have a different kind of intelligence and excel in other ways but are dismissed because they haven’t passed algebra. Let’s focus on person centered skills.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
https://www.linkedin.com/in/gingermedia/
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-digital-afterlife-of-grief-with-ginger-liu/id1647066879
https://gingerliu.substack.com/
Thank you so much for the time you spent on this. We greatly appreciate it and wish you continued success!
Defeating Deepfakes: Ginger Liu of Ginger Media & Entertainment How We Can Identify Convincingly… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.