A Seattle Q13 Fox editor was fired after an alleged “deepfake” video of US President Donald Trump was aired during his national address on border security on January 9th, MyNorthWest reported.
The author of the piece, Todd Herman was sent a video by a listener, showing a “a deceptively edited video of President Trump’s speech from the Oval Office. We performed a side-by-side comparison of the video from our listener, apparently taken by a smart phone recording of Q13, to the raw video of Trump’s speech from CNN.”
The comparison, as can be seen above shows the Q13 containing a loop of the POTUS licking his lips in a bizarre and unbalanced manner. It appears that Trump’s face was also distorted and an orange tint may have been added to his skin.
Initially, MyNorthWest cited a statement from Q13’s news director which said:
“We are investigating this to determine what happened,” adding “This does not meet our editorial standards and we regret if it is seen as portraying the President in a negative light. The editor responsible for editing the footage is being placed on leave while we investigate further.”
However, as of the evening of January 10th, the report contains a different statement:
“We’ve completed our investigation into this incident and determined that the actions were the result of an individual editor whose employment has been terminated,” said Q13’s news director. “This does not meet our editorial standards and we regret if it is seen as portraying the President in a negative light.”
ZeroHedge reported that the most worrisome part of the incident is that Trump’s speech was manipulated in real time. This is “a technological feat known as “Deep Fakes” – a convincing computer-generated manipulation which can produce an almost believable impersonation of an individual.”
Nvidia also showcased an AI algorithm that can create realistic looking pictures of people who don’t exist.
In early November, Chinese state news agency Xinhua showcased its AI anchor.
“AI anchors have officially become members of the Xinhua News Agency reporting team,” said the agency, adding “They will work with other anchors to bring you authoritative, timely and accurate news information in both Chinese and English.”
The very lifelike AI anchors are based on real people and can provide news coverage 24/7.
