Positive' deepfake?

Deepfake ads featuring Ramon Ang and Lance Gokongwei, trying to entice the greedy but gullible to invest in a get-rich scam.

- BOO CHANCO

What's unnerving is that they are using the voices of the tycoons.

RSA told me he has been protesting the ad, and SMC even produced memes warning the public that it is fake. Same with Lance. But apparently, the money from the sponsorship was too good for Meta, Facebook's owner, to resist.

When he was still Finance secretary, Sonny Dominguez was also victimized by Facebook advertising in a similar manner. Again, Facebook ignored Sonny's protests.

Lately, there's this one featuring BBM and a supposed new platform between Elon Musk and the government offering P79,200 a day. Facebook acknowledged receiving a complaint but claimed the obvious scam ad did not violate Facebook advertising standards.

The mystery is why our DICT has not forced Meta or Facebook to take down those deepfake and scam ads.

While the greedy and gullible among us deserve being duped, there may be innocent victims too.

Deepfake postings on social media have made the task of truth discernment among common people more difficult and dangerous. Yet, the problem is not with the technology but how the technology is being unethically used by the crooks among us. Protecting the vulnerable is the government's task, especially if Big Tech like Meta is apparently ignoring complaints.

To the non-techy readers who may be wondering, a deepfake is synthetic media — typically images, video, or audio — generated or manipulated using deep learning (AI) to convincingly portray someone doing or saying something they never actually did. The term comes from combining "deep learning" and "fake."

Deepfakes are made using AI techniques to learn a person's distinct features, voice, and mannerisms, then generate realistic new content.