from Patrick Coffee
Last year, the Russian telecommunications company MegaFon released a commercial in which a Bruce Willis simulation helps to defuse a bomb. A few days ago, Elon Musk starred in a marketing video for the real estate investment start-up reAlpha Tech Corp.
And last month, a promotional video for machine leasing company Paperspace Co. featured talking doubles of actors Tom Cruise and Leonardo DiCaprio.
None of these celebrities spent a single moment filming these campaigns. In the cases of Mr. Musk, Mr. Cruise and Mr. DiCaprio, they have not even agreed to support the companies in question.
All the videos with digital simulations were created using deep fake technology to make Hollywood and business celebrities say and do things they never actually said or did.
Some of the commercials are crude parodies, and the blending of the digital with the analog cannot, at best, fool an attentive viewer. Nevertheless, the increasing spread of deepfake software could profoundly change the industry and raise new legal and ethical questions at the same time.
Authorized deepfakes could allow marketers to feature big stars in advertising without them actually having to appear on set or in front of the camera, reducing costs and opening up new creative possibilities. However, unauthorized deepfakes create a legal grey area: celebrities may have difficulty controlling the distribution of unauthorized digital reproductions of themselves and the manipulation of their brand and reputation, experts say.
Wir haben es schon schwer genug mit gefälschten Informationen. Jetzt haben wir auch noch Fälschungen, die immer überzeugender aussehen“, sagte Ari Lightman, Professor für digitale Medien und Marketing am Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy der Carnegie Mellon University.
US lawmakers have begun to address the deepfake phenomenon. In 2019, Virginia banned the use of deepfakes in revenge porn, Texas banned them in political campaigns and California banned them in both. Last year, the Department of Homeland Security was directed under the U.S. National Defense Authorization Act to produce annual reports on the dangers posed by this technology.
Experts said they were not aware of any laws dealing specifically with the use of deepfakes in advertising.
Celebrities have had some success suing advertisers for unauthorized use of their likenesses under advertising law, said Aaron Moss, chair of the litigation department at law firm Greenberg Glusker. He cites Woody Allen's $5 million settlement with American Apparel in 2009 over the director's unauthorized appearance on one of the clothing brand's billboards.
Both Paperspace and reAlpha have had the videos reviewed by lawyers and have taken steps to ensure that viewers understand that the celebrities depicted are not promoting the companies' products or were involved in the production of the videos, the companies said.
Das Video von Paperspace erschien ursprünglich auf der eigenen Website und sollte die Nutzer über die Deepfake-Technologie aufklären, sagte Daniel Kobran, Chief Operating Officer. Das Musk-Video von reAlpha enthielt „Haftungsausschlüsse“, die es als Satire auswiesen, sagte Christie Currie, Chief Marketing Officer. Das Gleiche gilt für ein ähnliches Video, das reAlpha im vergangenen Jahr veröffentlicht hat und in dem eine digitale Version des Tesla-Chefs in einem Schaumbad saß und das Konzept der Regulierung A+ (Equity Crowdfunding) erklärte.
Das Video hatte 1,2 Millionen Aufrufe auf YouTube und weckte das Interesse von 22.000 Menschen in 83 Ländern“, so Currie in einer E-Mail. Sie fügte hinzu, dass das Unternehmen es vermied, das Video direkt mit seinen Spendenbemühungen in Verbindung zu bringen.
„Es gibt natürlich immer ein kleines Risiko bei jeder Art von Parodie“, sagte Currie in einem Interview, „aber im Allgemeinen sollte es kein Problem geben, solange es lehrreich und satirisch ist und man einen Haftungsausschluss hat, solange man nicht zu einer Transaktion aufruft.
The likelihood of someone of Mr. Musk's stature suing a startup over a deepfake video is slim, and those companies may decide the risk is worth the considerable publicity it would bring them, Moss said.
„Viele dieser Unternehmen gehen absichtlich so nah wie möglich an die Grenze, um die Prominenten, auf die sie abzielen, quasi zu trollen“. Aber die Leichtigkeit, mit der Deepfakes erstellt werden können, bedeutet, dass einige Prominente bald von Anzeigen überschwemmt werden könnten, die ihre unautorisierten, aber sehr überzeugenden Abbilder zeigen, sagte Moss. Es wäre der „Tod durch tausend Schnitte“, wenn Prominente versuchen würden, gegen jedes kleine Unternehmen oder jeden einzelnen Urheber vorzugehen, der die Software verwendet, fügte er hinzu.
At the same time, the wording in contracts written years before the technology was introduced can be so vague that marketers can use existing footage to create new deepfake videos.
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8 Responses
If THAT is all they can do in terms of deepfakes, which I highly doubt, then that is NOTHING.
Anyone who can't tell *that* apart is beyond help.
Das ist eben nicht alles. Das sind die harmlosen Apps, die sich jeder technisch Unbedarfte downloaden kann. Die Manipulation wird hier doch absichtlich „offensichtlich“ gemacht, um es als Überzeichnung/Parodie verkaufen zu können. Auch zur eigenen Rechtssicherheit, um nicht wegen Verstoßes gegen Copyright, Bild-, Namensrechte und Co verklagt zu werden.
Deepfakes that are deceptively real and professionally made are dangerous. The military, secret services etc. have other possibilities and a different motivation. Ultimately, it's like Photoshop. Maybe you have the program like me. I can manipulate an image/photo so that it's obvious to everyone. As a gag. Or I can make an effort. Then only the professional eye will recognize the manipulation. If at all. Give me a day. Then I'll photographically transform a two-star hotel into a five-star hotel. For the catalog, for the website. No problem. The swimming pool looks like a cesspit, there's a huge building site in the background? Not after I've edited the pictures.
What applies to images now also applies to moving images. And people are not sufficiently aware of this.
Genau so ist es, lieber Herr Löcke. Ich sage oft scherzhaft zu meiner Frau, wenn sie Bilder für den privaten Gebrauch verändert, damit sie besonders gut aussehen: „Du verfälschst Tatsachen, der Ast war nunmal da, oder dieser Vogel ist nunmal dort durchgeflogen“. Manchmal „verschiebt sie auch Kontinente“ 😉
Wenn das für einen Hobbyfotografen so einfach ist mit den zur Verfügung stehenden Mitteln, wie leicht ist es dann erst für einen bösartigen „Profi“. Und Kriegspropaganda ist ja auch schon ein alter Hut. Also ich glaube in diesem Zusammenhang nur mehr das, was ich biologisch sehe und anfassen kann 🙂
Wer sich durch Bilder oder Videos von „Prominenten“ zu einer Entscheidung motivieren lässt, die er nicht selbst qua eigenen Verstandes trteffen würde, ist selbst schuld. Oder so…
Als ich klein war hieß es „Ich habs doch schwarz auf weiß gelesen.“ Irgendwann hieß es „Ich habs doch mit eigenen Augen gesehen.“
What else can we say in the future?
What else can be said in the future? My neighbor's brother-in-law is supposed to have said that his cousin has a girlfriend whose acquaintance had heard from someone that his old school friend had a similar opinion because his great-aunt had always been of the same opinion.
That's enough, as conclusive evidence.
Video evidence is no longer evidence. This is becoming increasingly clear, but perhaps it should not become common knowledge. Images in particular are effective at spreading, shall we say, truths in an absolutely deliberate way. On the other hand, it is becoming increasingly clear to us as recipients of messages - simply trusting the images is all too often misleading. As children, many of us actually learned it on Sesame Street: "Why, why, why? If you don't ask, you stay stupid." Why have so many of us forgotten this?
Dear Dr. Wessel,
That is the curse of technological progress. Of course, it also has a blessing, but you can't have one without the other. Blessed are those who can differentiate.