As some of you may know, every year the Queen records a Christmas message which is broadcast on Christmas Day and shown on two of the mainstream UK TV channels, BBC1 and ITV1.
This was yesterday's message for those of you who are interested:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-55447011
For a number of years now another UK broadcaster, Channel 4, who consider themselves a bit more edgy than the mainstream channels have broadcast an "alternative" Christmas message.
Previous presenters have spanned a range covering every viewpoint from Marge Simpson to Edward Snowden through to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the then President of Iran.
This year they chose someone who could highlight the growing concern over trust in the media, a deepfake of the Queen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvY-Abd2FfM
NB - they deliberately did not fake the voice instead choosing to use an actress/comedian famous for doing a jokey imitation of the Queen's voice.
While the visuals are ok and show the technology is getting better, there is still room for improvement.
Given that deepfakes are a great concern to many, a detection tool was unveiled by Microsoft a few months ago, showing that this issue is receiving the attention of the Security Industry:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-53984114
As ever with these things, I expect the arms race between deepfake technology and deepfake detection technology to intensify in 2021.
