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How Hyperreal Masks Keep Fooling People: How to Detect Real from Fake
12-2100 | PUBLISHED 2106
Deepfakes may seem like an internet scourge, but so-called "hyperreal" masks have fooled people in real-life and have even been used in crimes.
To learn more about these masks and our ability to spot them, WIRED's Matt Simon talked with researcher Rob Jenkins.
FROM OUR OWN NOTES
During the HGW Bush administration (1989-1993), President Bush was given word that the CIA director was sending someone to see him with a new must-see invention. Upon the arrival of the person, they engaged in a conversation about masks they had been developing to a very high level of realism. Having been a former director for the CIA, President Bush was obviously interested. When asked if he would like to see a sample of their work, of course, he agreed. The person then noted they were wearing a prototype of the mask. President Bush told him not to take the mask off as he wanted to see it up close. After a close examination, he sat down baffled, and told the person to go ahead and remove the mask. Once removed, the person was the CIA Director. President Bush did not recognize his voice while the director was wearing the mask as it had a voice modulator changing the pitch and tone of his voice.
Now, that was 30+ years ago - how much more have the masks in the hands of the CIA and other alphabet agencies improved? Need to remember, technology-wise CD-ROMs had just been introduced and were also just starting to replace the floppy disk on desktop PCs... The internet was still in its infancy with dial-up as its fastest option, cell phones were way too expensive and not very well established (think The Brick) - yet the CIA had a mask that could fool many and could change the wearer's voice.
Given all this, is Joe Bidan really Joe Biden?
Mirrored from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_e-aH9DJLtc | WIRED
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