News Center Maine interviews Turner about deepfakes
Roy Turner, an associate professor of computer science at the University of Maine, spoke with News Center Maine for the report, “The rise of deepfakes and disinformation.” A deepfake is a technique used to create phony human photos or videos based on artificial intelligence, according to the report. Deepfakes have just emerged in the past five years, and although the technology appears complex, computer science experts say it’s really not all that sophisticated of technology, the report states. According to Turner, all you need is a large database of information, computing power and time to pull it off. “If you wanted to make truly good fakes that no one could tell apart, you might need the resources of a large company at the moment, but as computer resources become more available, it becomes easier and easier,” Turner said.