We are not ready for better deepfakes

Decoder with Nilay Patel

This is Alex Heath, your Thursday episode guest host. Today I'm talking with Gaurav Misra, the CEO of Captions. You may not have heard of Captions yet, but by now, you’ve probably seen a video that was generated using its AI models. The company’s Mirage Studio platform lets anyone generate AI versions of real people, and the results are alarmingly realistic.

Captions just put out a blog post titled, “We Build Synthetic Humans. Here’s What’s Keeping Us Up at Night.” It’s a good overview of the state of deepfakes and where they’re headed. So Gauraav and I sat down to discuss the trajectory of deepfake technology and what might be done to prevent it from being misused.

Links:

• We build synthetic humans. Here’s what’s keeping us up at night | Captions
• Google’s Veo 3 AI video generator is a slop monger’s dream | Verge
• Gemini AI can now turn photos into videos | Verge
• Trump just unveiled his plan to put AI in everything | Verge
• Racist videos made with AI are going viral on TikTok | Verge
• Microsoft wants Congress to outlaw AI-generated deepfake fraud | Verge
• YouTube is supporting the ‘No Fakes Act’ targeting unauthorized AI replicas | Verge
• This Tom Cruise impersonator is using deepfake tech to impressive ends | Verge

Credits:

Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

Our producers are Kate Cox and Nick Statt. Our editor is Ursa Wright.

The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.

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