The BBC thriller The Capture has returned with a storyline depicting a minister's live interview being hacked and replaced by a deepfake replica. While fictional, cybersecurity experts warn the technology portrayed is increasingly realistic and poses a genuine threat.
Professor Alan Woodward of the University of Surrey stated that deepfakes have advanced rapidly since the first series aired three years ago. He noted that machine learning can now create indistinguishable replicas that can be made to say anything, raising concerns about their potential misuse in disinformation campaigns.
The threat was exemplified during the war in Ukraine, when a deepfake video of President Volodymyr Zelensky urging surrender circulated online. Although quickly identified as fake, Professor Woodward fears such technology could be used to undermine democracy in the West, particularly by adversaries like Russia.
Deepfakes first gained notoriety in 2017, with fake videos of celebrities like Scarlett Johansson and Barack Obama going viral. Since then, the technology has been used to target political figures, including a doctored video of Nancy Pelosi shared by Donald Trump. US intelligence agencies warned that adversaries might use deepfakes to influence the 2020 election.
Professor Woodward also highlighted the flip side of deepfakes: they provide public figures with 'ultimate plausible deniability' when caught in scandals. As the technology evolves, he cautioned that people can no longer trust their eyes and ears.
