Mark Zuckerberg discussed his new virtual-reality headset and love of jiu-jitsu while also explaining Facebook’s decision to reduce distribution of an article about Hunter Biden. Additionally, Joe Rogan quizzed him about Facebook’s content-moderation policies.
Two artists and an advertising company collaborated to produce a video which appears to show Mark Zuckerberg saying things he never said, known as a deepfake.
What’s the deal?
Mark Zuckerberg seems to recognize the future of his company by going live more frequently on Facebook, yet social media giant still struggles to encourage its users to jump on board the live video trend. According to Tubular Labs’ data, although more users have been going live, their actual viewers haven’t increased proportionately.
Meta’s parent company, tech firm Meta Platforms Inc, unveiled a virtual-reality startup it hopes will become a hit, though investors remain skeptical that this venture can restore Meta’s fortunes.
Though clearly an elaborate fake, this Mark Zuckerberg video still manages to have its own special charm. Bill Posters from Sheffield who produced it sees it as an opportunity for critique about digital influencers.
One way he achieves this is by depicting Zuckerberg as the protagonist in an Ultimate Fighting Championship cage match. Given his penchant for practicing Brazilian martial art jiu-jitsu – used frequently by UFC – Oddspedia calculated odds on whether he would prevail against Dana White (chief UFC official) in such an imaginary fight, giving him an 83% chance of victory – an excellent prediction for an entrepreneur looking to take their social-media empire further with AR and VR technology.
The deepfake
Deepfake refers to videos, images, or audio produced using artificial intelligence (AI). Although they appear realistic, these productions were not captured live and present a false representation of reality.
Face morphing, inpainting and neural network face swapping are among the many techniques available for digitally altering someone else’s face to appear on another body. MIT artist Joseph Ayerle created an intriguing video artwork in which actor Ornella Muti and photo model Kendall Jenner swapped faces between 1978 to 2018 depicting Ornella Muti traveling through time as she aged from 1978-2018.
Deepfakes can provide hours of fun, yet they’re increasingly being employed for more serious purposes. According to research from AI company Deeptrace, 96% of deepfake videos contain pornographic material aimed at women; state-sponsored deepfakes may even be used as political pawns or to fuel violence.
Tech companies are taking steps to help combat deepfakes. Facebook held a contest this year for people to create models capable of detecting them, while Twitter now deletes reported deepfakes reported by users. Unfortunately, these tools won’t stop malicious actors from spreading deepfakes; people must become aware of these risks and learn how to spot them themselves.
The original
As Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg battles questions over privacy and company name changes, it’s evident he won’t let anything derail him – including this viral video depicting him as a digital stand-in in a virtual reality environment. But this may be one of his strangest moves yet!
Surreal Entertainment’s 3-D animation begins with Mark Zuckerberg sitting in a conference room while giving a PowerPoint presentation about the Metaverse, but as he talks his body becomes increasingly uncanny – becoming akin to an animated character from a horror film by its conclusion.
But that is only part of the story. The artists used a clip taken from a CBS news broadcast and, according to them, this constitutes an unauthorized use of their trademark. CNN Business reached out to Canny AI cofounder Omer Ben-Ami about how this use violated Facebook policies on deepfakes.
After the viral clip emerged, CBS requested we remove it. In response, Facebook issued a statement which read: “CBS has asked us to remove this video. We respect their request and will comply.” Unfortunately, however, this decision had no noticeable effect on Facebook’s decision to keep up the Mark Zuckerberg jiu-jitsu clip online; given how easily cat lovers can find murderers online and Taylor Swift fans find easter eggs on TikTok, it seems unlikely the social network would enforce anti-fake video restrictions against fake videos online.
Facebook’s response
Facebook has long claimed that users could trust it to moderate what’s posted on its platform, but following an obvious image manipulation of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi going viral, the company was forced to reconsider their stance. Now Facebook has implemented a policy where it will “de-prioritize” or remove content which violates its terms of service, as well as offer third party fact checkers for any such material that appears.
As seen in the video above, an nervously sweaty Mark Zuckerberg sweats nervously while answering questions about Facebook’s privacy policies. When hosts realize he’s sweating excessively they invite him to remove his hoodie for comfort; but he refuses, saying it serves as his sacred company uniform. Demand Progress Action produced this video as part of their advocacy program for tech, which subtextually implies Facebook is an ideological cult that must be obeyed.
Zuckerberg is known for making dramatic statements, yet it remains to be seen if this one will fulfill his promises. Just four years ago he declared Facebook would one day become an exclusively video platform; two years ago he said the company’s focus would shift toward developing social infrastructure; however, both these visions never fully materialized – so time will tell whether Metaverse will follow suit.