Powered by MOMENTUM MEDIA
cyber daily logo
Breaking news and updates daily. Subscribe to our Newsletter

DARPA readies new anti-deepfake technology

The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has said that its Semantic Forensics program is ready for industry and academia to use.

user icon David Hollingworth
Thu, 28 Mar 2024
DARPA readies new anti-deepfake technology
expand image

Deepfakes are a growing problem – whether it be celebrities caught up in deepfake pornography, advanced threat actors using deepfakes of politicians to sow political discord, or scammers pretending to be friends and family, deepfakes are a pervasive threat.

The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, however, has been working on a solution to the problem and is ready for its work to reach a wider audience.

DARPA’s Semantic Forensics program, also known as SemaFor, is designed to help individuals and organisations spot deepfakes.

============
============

“With SemaFor in its final phase, DARPA’s investments have systemically driven down developmental risks – paving the way for a new era of defences against the mounting threat of deepfakes,” DARPA said in a statement.

“Now, the agency is calling on the broader community – including commercial industry and academia doing research in this space – to leverage these investments.”

DARPA is doing two things with its SemaFor program to help defend the wider community. First up is the release of an open-source analytic catalogue developed by the program, which will be shared with researchers and industry.

The second effort is DARPA’s AI Forensics Open Research Challenge Evaluation, or AI FORCE. This aims to develop machine learning models that can detect images generated by AI via a series of “mini-challenges” where participants must pick between fully synthetic images, authentic images, and once retouched by other methods.

According to Dr Wil Corvey, DARPA’s Semantic Forensics program manager, it’s time for the program to grow.

“Our investments have seeded an opportunity space that is timely, necessary, and poised to grow,” Corvey said.

“With the help of industry and academia around the world, the Semantic Forensics program is ready to share what we’ve started to bolster the ecosystem needed to defend authenticity in a digital world.”

David Hollingworth

David Hollingworth

David Hollingworth has been writing about technology for over 20 years, and has worked for a range of print and online titles in his career. He is enjoying getting to grips with cyber security, especially when it lets him talk about Lego.

newsletter
cyber daily subscribe
Be the first to hear the latest developments in the cyber industry.