Is deepfake the future?

Deepfakes are something that are being used more widely and, here, we talk to two people who are behind recent ad campaigns which have employed deepfake technology.

Joe Wade, Co-Founder of Don't Panic London, parodied Boris Johnson earlier this year, and Bold director, Zach Math, helmed deepfake spots which used the likenesses of Russian president Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un.

They discuss the rise in popularity of the process, the challenges of working with it, the positive uses it has, as well as the dangers it could pose.

You could have Lennon himself selling your customers the new iPhone, singing, “Imagine allllllll new features”. I’m sure that would be in line with his politics.

Do you think deepfake ads will become more prevalent in the coming year?

JW: Deepfake advertising is something we’ll likely start to see more and more. The technology wasn’t quite there before, but it’s pretty widespread now. There are even deepfake apps that can do a fairly convincing job, so the barrier for entry is getting lower. With advertising, just look at Apple’s Think Different campaign from the late 90s; they used Gandhi, Einstein, John Lennon and, for some reason, Kermit the Frog as the faces. Today, if you approached their estates with enough budget and enough sweet-talking, why would a deepfake be out of the question? You could have Lennon himself selling your customers the new iPhone, singing, “Imagine allllllll new features”. I’m sure that would be in line with his politics.

ZM: I do think they have the potential to become more popular. When appropriate, to see/hear someone famous or iconic speaking out of character can be a very effective way of communicating a message. 

Above: Apple's late 90s spot which used Gandhi, Einstein, John Lennon and others.

What are the main challenges when working with deepfake technology to create a commercial?

JW: We’ve created the types of deepfake that transpose a different face onto an actor’s face, rather than using pre-existing footage. So, a lot comes down to the quality of the performance. They not only need to be a great actor, perfectly capturing the mannerisms of the figure they're impersonating, but their voice work needs to be spot on too. It’s going to destroy the effect if they’re trying to impersonate Boris Johnson, but they sound more like an asthmatic Mr Toad (although that might not be too far off). Currently, high quality voice replication AI does exist, but it’s still not widely available. That’s something that will hopefully change in the next couple of years.

Our ads [for RepresentUS] were supposed to air on mainstream networks in the US but were banned at the last minute. 

ZM: Our ads [for RepresentUS] were supposed to air on mainstream networks in the US but were banned at the last minute. I’m not sure if it was because someone watched and said, "this is a deepfake and we don’t allow this", or someone just took a quick glance and thought Putin and Kim Jong-Un were trying to buy air time. Probably the former but it’s kinda funny/scary to picture the latter. On a technical level, it has its limitations. Deepfake programs are heavily reliant on the amount of authentic footage of the real person input into the program so it can ‘learn’ facial nuances. It also doesn’t handle eyeglasses very well, so for both of those reasons Kim Jong-Un was a challenge.    

Above: Zach Math's work for RepresentUS which deepfaked Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-Un.

As the industry wrestled with shooting restrictions and actors/productions grappled with lockdown rules, did deepfake enable a shooting method that circumnavigated all that, and could it continue to be used once the pandemic ends?

JW: Seeing as we used actors and then deepfaked famous faces over theirs in post, we still had to do battle with socially distant production rules. However, if you were using pre-existing footage and then deepfaking faces on top of this, it would be a very useful way of circumnavigating Covid restrictions. It would also likely save on production costs when the pandemic’s over. The problem with this type of deepfake, though, is that it’s pretty limiting because you’re completely reliant on the footage you have available. Trump may have done a lot of mental things over the years, but we sadly didn’t have any footage to hand of him doing yoga or tearing up ballot papers. Although you’d imagine Putin might have that stored on a hard drive somewhere. 

Trump may have done a lot of mental things over the years, but we sadly didn’t have any footage to hand of him doing yoga or tearing up ballot papers.

ZM: Not really. We had sets and actors who needed to be directed and captured with a standard live-action approach, so for us there wasn’t much difference on set with the exception of following Covid protocols. [Production company] PlayTimeMedia and [agency] Mischief had all the safety regulations in place so everyone felt really safe going about their work. The casting process was very unique and more intensive. While the performance was first priority, there were certain physical considerations in regards to creating the most realistic deepfake. So, we ran all our shortlist actors through the program to see who worked best physically for each role. Like any newer technology, deepfake is just another tool available to filmmakers.

Above: Zach Math, left, and Joe Wade. 

In an age in which 'fake news' is both everywhere, but also sometimes undetected, can deepfaked commercials add to the confusion around what's true and what's not?

JW: Deepfakes themselves can obviously be very dangerous if used with the purpose of misleading and manipulating people. To get approval, you’d imagine that deepfaked advertising would have to not appear too realistic. We set out to make sure it was immediately obvious that our deepfakes were satirical and didn’t look ‘real’. I’m not sure too many people would feel manipulated by watching our video of Trump gently pressing his tiny hands into a bowl of marbles. Although not strictly a deepfake, the edited footage from last year of Nancy Pelosi appearing to be drunk in an interview is a perfect example of the sort of propaganda we wanted to steer well clear of.

Part of the problem right now is the political landscape is rife with misinformation and disinformation, perpetuated to disenfranchise the voters.

ZM: Yes, it can, but if the medium is part of the message (as it is in this campaign) hopefully it helps draw attention to itself and the potential harm that it can perpetuate. Part of the problem right now is the political landscape is rife with misinformation and disinformation, perpetuated to disenfranchise the voters. So, hopefully in some small way, this obvious deepfake campaign cuts through that interference and adds to the conversation in a positive way.  

A lot of deepfake films have had a political hue; do you think it will break out of that approach in the near future?

JW: For sure, and the further it moves away from politics, the less sinister the view of it will become. Its future lies not just in advertising, but in non-political comedy, as well as drama. Deceased actors have been placed into new films for quite a few years now, so this technology will be improved and perfected. Documentary reconstructions could also benefit from the use of deepfakes, but clarity over what’s real and what isn’t would be essential; when the line of reality becomes too blurred, that’s when things start to get pretty sinister again. 

Documentary reconstructions could also benefit from the use of deepfakes, but clarity over what’s real and what isn’t would be essential.

ZM: I do. There’s a lot of comedic potential when you can digitally put one person's face onto another. I think Stephen Merchant is developing a comedy show where deepfake is the central comedic device, and Jordan Peele combined both when he did it with Obama.