AI Deepfake Problem Showing up in Real Life Situations

Confirmed Achiever Volume II, Issue 2 – February 2024

Author

David Radin
February 20, 2024

❝

“Sincerity. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made.”

— George Burns…er…Groucho Marx…er…Samual Goldwin?

That quote might have been Groucho; but maybe not. Read more below…

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In today’s issue:

  1. Deepfakes - likely to become a bigger problem. Here’s proof it’s older than dirt.

    • Bonus: How to authenticate viral quotes

  2. Google’s Gemini - what you need to know and what Google’s CEO says

  3. iPhone Tip: About face! Apple officially says dump the RICE

  4. News, Need-to-know, and Stats:

    • Ransomware lock-up, 2 huge acquisitions, and Musk’s patient’s first big move

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On the Internet, nobody knows if you’re a dog.

The Deep Fake Problem

Quotes like the one at the top of the newsletter have been an issue for years. For decades, it has been attributed to various celebrities and has changed in form with each iteration. While Groucho might have been the first to say it, we do know that George Burn’s third memoir, published in 1980, three years after Groucho’s death — and journalists have over the years attributed it (or variations) to other people.

It’s a lot easier to tell whether something’s fake when it can’t be real, such as the Internet meme in which Abraham Lincoln says you can’t believe everything you read on the Internet.

With Generative AI, however, deep fakes have become more treacherous and perhaps more dangerous. For several years, there have been numerous fakes floating about election circumstances, politicians, and other topics. Prior to the New Hampshire primary, robocalls started reaching New Hampshire voters sounding like President Biden, asking voters to stay home — leading the FCC to make such calls illegal.

It’s all becoming more difficult for ordinary citizens.

A slightly heartening aspect is that the source of the fake Biden calls were identified by an AI company that had nothing to do with the calls. Pindrop, a security company that uses AI in their processes, traced the calls to ElevenLabs, an AI call generation service.

Similarly, most reputable social networks plan to require labeling of GenAI created images using a tag mechanism. But these mechanisms can be worked around — and we all know that social networks in general have been slow to act — especially when it might impact their revenues.

Google introduces “Gemini” 

Google has announced that it will be calling its Premium AI Assistant, “Gemini”, not Bard, and that it will be charging $20 for the privilege.

The $20 price is consistent with similar services from Microsoft and ChatGPT.

Early users are saying that the Google chatbot results have been generally good; and that it has a different “personality” than what they’ve seen with other AI chatbots — a bit more playful according to some.

Until you’re ready to test it out to determine it for yourself, if you’re an iPhone user, you can always rely on some of the more playful requests from Siri, such as “Play me a song”.

Google’s Sundar Pichai introduces Gemini. Yes; the date on the announcement is December 6, 2023. Go figure. Did we all miss it? Or did Google revise history?

iPhone Tip: Apple says dump the RICE

For years, common wisdom said that if you drop your mobile device in water, you can undo the bad effects by putting it in a sealed container with rice. The rice would absorb the moisture, thus, after some time, restoring your device to working order.

Now… no! no! no! says Apple. They have officially come out against the idea for your iPhone or iPad because the rice could jam up the works — or we guess “starch up the works”. Gizmodo has more.

Mobile professionals forfeit too much time traveling. Confirmed helps you reclaim that time by offering you a better way to set up your meetings on the road — using A.I., of course.

News, Need-to-know, and Stats

Walmart to buy TV maker Vizio (for its Operating System!) - I could swear Vizeo was a Best Buy brand

The last word

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David