It was easy to figure out which are the fakes, but I am very impressed and spooked at the idea of this technology improving, then getting into the wrong hands.
There's already businesses that sell camera apps (or cameras? my memory is a bit dim) that save a photo along with a cryptographic hash to prove authenticity. Their customers are for example insurance companies, which require their clients to take pictures of damaged property etc. for claim filings that way.
And if the fake confirms someone's worldview or serves their interests, confirmation bias will take over and no "fancy math" is going to change their mind.
What I'm hoping is that we'll find means to actually build trust, e.g. with signing as we discussed here. I'm not entirely confident in that, but wouldn't it be nice if we engineers had a hand in building some useful tools for society? :)
There have been instances of of deceit, but in general the ability to give some credence to leaked political tapes has been a positive thing for society.
With this avenue for political exposure disappearing and totalitarianism making a comeback, it is a bit worrisome how we will continue to blow the whistle on politicians when being present with a camera isn't even enough.
> Photo manipulation is a very old practice.
But not modern audio or video. We're running out of options.
> There's already businesses that sell camera apps (or cameras? my memory is a bit dim) that save a photo along with a cryptographic hash to prove authenticity
This only works if the photo is of yourself and you want to prove its authenticity. If the photo is of someone else, it's still your word against theirs regardless of what hashes you have.
Yeah but would you figure it out if you just listened to it expecting Joe Rogan?