Digital cloning

Digital cloning is an emerging technology, that involves deep-learning algorithms, which allows one to manipulate currently existing audio, photos, and videos that are hyper-realistic.

[1] One of the impacts of such technology is that hyper-realistic videos and photos makes it difficult for the human eye to distinguish what is real and what is fake.

[6] In addition to deepfakes, companies such as Intellitar now allows one to easily create a digital clone of themselves by feeding a series of images and voice recordings.

[7] The individual must train his or her clone to act and speak like themselves by feeding the algorithm numerous voice recordings and videos of themselves.

Although most of these companies are still in its developing stages, they all are trying to achieve the same goal of allowing the user to create an exact duplicate of themselves to store every memory they have in their mind into the cyberspace.

However, with the premium setting, these companies will ask the user to upload photos, videos, and audio recordings of one to form a realistic version of themselves.

IAP must have a strong foundation and responsibility against data breaches and hacking in order to protect personal information of the dead, which can include voice recording, photos, and messages.

As described earlier, deepfakes is a form of video manipulation where one can change the people present by feeding various images of a specific person they want.

With anyone being able to access this tool, some may maliciously use the app to create revenge porn and manipulative videos of public officials making statements they will never say in real life.

Some of the early warning signs have already appeared in the form of phone scams[16][17] and fake videos on social media of people doing things they never did.

[15] 15.ai—a non-commercial freeware web application that began as a proof of concept of the democratization of voice acting and dubbing using technology—gives the public access to such technology.

[22] Its gratis and non-commercial nature (with the only stipulation being that the project be properly credited when used[23]), ease of use, and substantial improvements to current text-to-speech implementations have been lauded by users;[24][25][26] however, some critics and voice actors have questioned the legality and ethicality of leaving such technology publicly available and readily accessible.

[34] In recognition of the threat that voice cloning poses to privacy, civility, and democratic processes, the Institutions, including the Federal Trade Commission, U.S. Department of Justice and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR), have weighed in on various audio deepfake use cases and methods that might be used to combat them.

One example of this includes creating a digital clone of historical figures, such as Abraham Lincoln, to show what problems he faced during his life and how he was able to overcome them.

Additionally, movie-industry can also create digital clones in movie scenes that may require extras, which can help cut the cost of production immensely.

Some concerning deepfake videos that can bring potential harm includes depiction of political officials displaying inappropriate behavior, police officers shown as shooting unarmed black men, and soldiers murdering innocent civilians may begin to appear although it may have never occurred in real life.

[39] With such hyper-realistic videos being released on the Internet, it becomes very easy for the public to be misinformed, which could lead people to take actions, thus contributing to this vicious cycle of unnecessary harm.

Visual information can be very convincing to the human eyes, therefore, the combination of deepfakes and fake news can have a detrimental effect on society.

The phone calls will have the exact voice and mannerism as the individual, which can trick the victim into giving private information to the criminal without knowing.

[41] Alternatively, a bad actor could, for example, create a deepfake of a person superimposed onto a video to extract blackmail payment and/or as an act of revenge porn.

[43] In the United States, copyright laws require some type of originality and creativity in order to protect the author’s individuality.

In the decision of Supreme Court case Feist Publications Inc. v. Rural Television Services Company, Inc., Justice O’Connor emphasized the importance of originality and some degree of creativity.

In Meshwerks v. Toyota, this question was raised and the court stated that the same copyright laws created for photography should be applied to digital clones.

[48] In addition to developing new technology that can detect any video manipulations, many researchers are raising the importance for private corporations creating stricter guidelines to protect individual privacy.

Furthermore, artificial intelligence will begin to appear in various aspects of society, which makes it important to have laws that protect humans rights as technology takes over.

By increasing the digital literacy of the public, people have a greater chance of determining whether a given video has been manipulated as they can be more skeptical of the information they find online.