A Google computer scientist says his new lip-reading technology has terrifying implications for fake news
The computer programme learns how to imitate the way a person talks by watching videos of them speaking
By Hilary Brueck
In an era of fake news, we can still rely on our own eyes to spot the truth, right? Wrong.
Computer scientist Supasorn Suwajanakorn, now a research resident at Google Brain, has created a new kind of lip-reading technology that can make a fake video of just about anyone that looks and sounds almost exactly like them.
All the programme needs is a few photos and videos to learn from. Suwajanakorn demonstrated the tool onstage in Vancouver at the 2018 TED Conference on Wednesday.
He said the new system, which he created as a PhD thesis project at the University of Washington, uses a neural learning network to mimic movements in the mouth and teeth of a person from video footage. In essence, the computer algorithm teaches itself to imitate exactly how a person talks by watching them over and over again.
Suwajanakorn has already successfully created fake videos of celebrities like Tom Hanks and former president Barack Obama using only images and videos that are readily available online.
He said it doesn’t really matter what kinds of facial expressions a person makes or which words they say. All that matters is that the system has enough data to pick up on a speaker’s mannerisms by studying the subject’s teeth, lip movements, and jaw shape.