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Lawmakers Worry About Rise of Fake Video Technology (thehill.com)

Lawmakers are concerned that advances in video manipulation technology could set off a new era of fake news. Now legislators say they want to start working on fixes to the problem before it's too late. From a report: Technology experts have begun to sound the alarm on the new software, which lets users take existing videos and make high-quality altered video and audio that appears real. The emergence of the technology opens up a new world of hoaxes driven by doctored audio or video, and threatens to shake faith in the media even further. Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), one of the most vocal members of Congress on tech issues, painted a grim picture about what the advances could mean for the future of discerning truth in media. "Since we can't rely on the responsibility of individual actors or the platforms they use, I fully expect there will be a proliferation of these sorts of fictions to a degree that nearly drowns out actual facts," Wyden told The Hill. "For those who value real information, there will still be some reliable publications and news outlets, and their credibility will need to be guarded all the more intently by professional journalists," he added.

2 of 194 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Threatened by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Don't be stupid, the media want to make money and sell their news. Besides, even if the media manipulated video for propaganda use, then having tens of thousands of additional lunatics manipulate videos in their mom's basement won't do any good either.

    Making it common turns people's filter defaults into "It's probably fake" unlike before. The Falcon Heavy launch was an example for this. Lots of people thought it was fake until friends or friends of friends in florida confirmed it was real.

  2. Re:Threatened by jellomizer · · Score: 2, Interesting

    At least if lies are pointed out you can find the source.

    However we are in a world were nearly all information cannot be trusted anymore. The validity of the information is up to our own sense, which is faulty, because our own bias true or not will be in affect.

    I welcome news that challenges my world view, However if I cannot trust it (because other then truth they are pandering to other world views), I need to default back to my world view. I do not work in journalism, I don't have the time or resources to investigate every belief I have, and listening to the news and digging to find if it is true or not.

    I use NPR as my primary news source, as I find it the most trustworthy, and they seem to be willing to report on their own errors. I am well aware their politics are left of center, but at least they put a good faith effort in showing the other side as well. But in today's world, who knows perhaps Fox News is actually a real source of truth, and my world view is completely screwed up, from being influenced by LiBeRaL MeDiA!

    --
    If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.