A click on a video, and the life of a teenager in Valkenswaard suddenly looked very different on Thursday. He fell victim to digital blackmail with a video, in which his photos and an existing masturbation video were put together. Manipulated videos are made so convincing that blackmail is increasingly common. And making such a video? That is child’s play nowadays. According to Sander Duivestein, expert in the field of artificial intelligence and deepfake, it is a dangerous development.
The perpetrators did use two real photos of the boy and mount them with a video, which was probably picked somewhere from the internet. So it seemed like he was the main character in the video. According to Duivestein, expert in the field of artificial intelligence and deep -fakethis is very easy nowadays.
“You don’t have to be a genius at all to manipulate images. All you need is a photo of a face. That can be a sharp profile photo of social media, but also a fast photo that you have taken in the classroom. Then you open that photo and an existing video in a tool and you can let that person do everything.
This type of manipulated videos are increasingly being put together. Deepfake is a common example of this. It is a fake video, photo or audio that is made so realistic with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) that it seems as if someone says or does something that actually never happened.
The tools for making such images have been around five years. Where it once started with low resolution videos, the deep fake videos can no longer be distinguished from real. “The development went super fast.” This is partly due to the rise of advertisements on Facebook, among others.
“Because of those advertisements, people are increasingly able to find their way to these tools.” Do you also want one deep -fake video of someone? Then go to this tool ‘, are texts that regularly end up in a Facebook feed. And that is hardly maintained. These companies are only about money and attention. A bad thing, because this one deep -fake-Tools should definitely not be promoted. “
It even goes so far that amateurs nowadays gather on the internet for them deep -fake Share nude images with each other. “Whole forums have been set up. An easy way to blackmail people.”
“It is a confrontation that not everyone can handle. I am very concerned about that.”
According to Duivestein, the blackmail leads to a much bigger problem. “Threatening or actually spreading this kind deep -fake Images can lead to severe mental problems and ultimately even suicide. It is a confrontation that not everyone can handle. I am very concerned about that. “
Duivestein thinks it is difficult to arm us against the rise of these tools. “You have AI detection tools, where you can check whether images are real or fake. Only create makers of the tools always look for ways to bypass this detection, making it not always reliable. This creates a cat and mouse game.”
In addition, it is also difficult for emergency services to intervene. “They will take it seriously, but in practice it is difficult to find out who has manipulated these images. Yet punishments are most effective to stop these people. As soon as they know what the consequences are, they may think twice before they make a fake video to blackmail someone.”
The police report that there are no figures about blackmail with deep -fake are available. They do, however, recommend all the victims to report.
