Deepfake used in Kendrick Lamar's video with Kanye West and Will Smith
Deepfake, also known as hyper faking or videotox, is a technique that uses artificial intelligence to transform multimedia content. It superimposes existing video files onto other videos or music. This creates what are known as infoxes (false information) and hoaxes. It's a technological feat that's becoming increasingly accessible and covered by the media, as in the case of Kendrick Lamar's new video.
The history of deepfake
Simulating facial movements and transposing them onto a target person is a relatively recent technology. Audio hypertructuring first appeared in 2016 thanks to the Adobe Voco program, which is capable of reproducing the human voice.
In July 2017, the technology will be called a "feat". Indeed, the BBC will broadcast a speech delivered by an AI replicating Obama. This feat was indistinguishable from reality.
Another less glorious phenomenon, hypertruqué pornography, saw the light of day in 2017. It superimposes the faces of Hollywood actresses and actors on bodies that are not their own.
In January 2018, the FakeApp app went live. It offers the possibility of quickly creating videos where faces are swapped, then sharing them.
Finally, in August 2018, researchers at the University of California at Berkeley published a study on the creation of fake videos of dancers. In this way, a character can be superimposed on the movements of a professional dancer.
Kendrick Lamar and the Deep Voodoo studio
Artist Kendrick Lamar uses artificial intelligence in his latest clip "The Heart Part 5". The Deep Voodoo studio (owned by the creators of the South Park series) produced the clip's deepfakes, demonstrating the impressive results of this collaboration.
Deep Voodoo isn't on its first try, as the studio has already produced a fake deepfake documentary in 2020: Sassy Justice with Fred Sassy. This video is still available on the Internet today. Important personalities such as Donald Trump and Mark Zuckerberg can be seen.
This new artistic project, which is as daring technologically as it is creatively, heralds the start of a long series. It would appear that a feature film for Paramount is in the pipeline, although nothing official has yet been confirmed.
Kendrick Lamar has once again created something incredible that could take him to new heights, as usual.