Particles of Thought Deepfake Detection and the Future of AI with Hany Farid
Aug 26, 2025
Hany Farid is a Professor of computer science and digital forensics at UC Berkeley and Chief Science Officer at GetReal Labs, focusing on deepfake detection and misinformation. He discusses how AI can manipulate reality and the challenges in distinguishing real from fake media. Hany explains the technology behind deepfakes, including generative adversarial networks, and highlights detection methods. He warns about the public's inability to spot fakes and emphasizes the need for trusted journalism. The conversation touches on AI's impact on jobs, education, and the future of creativity.
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Three‑Part Pipeline Enables Disinformation
- Creation, distribution, and amplification together enable rapid spread of disinformation.
- Social platforms democratized distribution and polarized amplification completes the misinformation pipeline.
Public Demo Where Even Expert Was Fooled
- Hany demonstrated audio deepfakes in a talk and found even he struggled to tell real from generated samples.
- He used a commercial cloning service and noted the lack of guardrails around uploading others' voices.
Voice Clone Test With His Own Voice
- Hany cloned his own voice by uploading three minutes to a commercial service and couldn't reliably tell real from fake.
- The service asked if he had permission to use the person's voice and cloned it after he confirmed.