Dipfake programs have proliferated on the Web

The number of available programs for creating dipfakes has grown rapidly on the Internet; today there are more than 50 thousand of them, although two years ago there were practically no such solutions.

False challenge: every second Russian will face a deepfake attack by the end of the year

How fake video and voice messages are created

"More than 50 thousand free tools for generating dipfakes have appeared in open access - from mobile programs to complex platforms with artificial intelligence," the press service of MWS AI (part of MTS Web Services, formerly MTS AI) told Izvestia.

"Izvestia" conducted its own experiment to create a dipfake and made sure that it requires a minimum of effort and experience. The digital avatar required only two photos - of the correspondent and his acquaintance.

The next steps were simple: the photo was uploaded to one of the popular online services that offer a face replacement function, and a pre-prepared photo of the person was selected as a template. The program automatically substituted the journalist's face for the body of another person - without any manual adjustments or additional processing. The process took no more than 10 minutes. Creating a video will require a little more effort and financial investment - you need to buy a subscription that gives you access to the improved algorithms. On average, it costs from $3-6 per month.

The sharp increase in the number of available tools for creating dipfakes is an alarming signal. Today, any user with basic skills can generate realistic video or audio on behalf of anyone - a relative to a government official. The main threat lies not only in fake news or reputational attacks, but also in the practical application of these technologies by fraudsters, said Duma deputy Anton Nemkin.

"Deepfakes are used to deceive citizens and organizations: fake voices of executives, video messages from "bank employees", "officials" or "relatives" are becoming part of complex social engineering schemes," he told Izvestia.

According to him, the problem is exacerbated by the fact that it is becoming more and more difficult to recognize a dipfake - generation technologies are developing faster than security features. For the average person, the difference between real and synthetic content is almost imperceptible - this creates the ground for mass manipulation and destruction of trust in visual and audio evidence in general.

Read more in Izvestia's exclusive article:

The same face: the number of programs for creating dipfakes has grown rapidly on the Web