deepfake

noun

deep·​fake ˈdēp-ˌfāk How to pronounce deepfake (audio)
plural deepfakes
: an image or recording that has been convincingly altered and manipulated to misrepresent someone as doing or saying something that was not actually done or said
Two artists and an advertising company created a deepfake of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg saying things he never said, and uploaded it to Instagram.Samantha Cole
No law regulates deepfakes, though some legal and technical experts have recommended adapting current laws covering libel, defamation, identity fraud or impersonating a government official. But concerns of overregulation abound: The dividing line between a parody protected by the First Amendment and deepfake political propaganda may not always be clear-cut.Drew Harwell
With Mueller warning of future election meddling, [Representative Adam] Schiff said that one of his biggest concerns for future campaigns was the development of deepfake technology—the ability to manipulate videos or audio to change what a person appears to have said. 'How do we prepare against the late distribution of a fraudulent video?' Schiff said.Elias Groll and Amy Mackinnon

Did you know?

The old maxim "things aren’t always as they seem" seems more true than ever in the age of deepfakes. A deepfake is an image, or a video or audio recording, that has been edited using an algorithm to replace the person in the original with someone else (especially a public figure) in a way that makes it look authentic. The fake in deepfake is transparent: deepfakes are not real. The deep is less self-explanatory: this half of the term is specifically influenced by deep learning—that is, machine learning using artificial neural networks with multiple layers of algorithms.

Examples of deepfake in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web However, it was quickly revealed as an AI deepfake when users noticed the man had three arms. Maxwell Zeff / Gizmodo, Quartz, 4 Mar. 2024 With the right combination of approaches, Gupta said, the vast majority of deepfakes could be filtered out of a school or company network. Jon Healey, Los Angeles Times, 26 Feb. 2024 Hallucinations are a legitimate challenge to overcome, and the world of deepfakes only reinforces the need for greater diligence and caution. Ram Chakravarti, Forbes, 26 Feb. 2024 Currently, no federal laws protect the victims of nonconsensual deepfakes. Tatum Hunter, Washington Post, 25 Feb. 2024 More than a dozen tech firms involved in building or using AI technologies pledged on Friday to work together to detect and counter harmful AI content in elections, including deepfakes of political candidates. Clare Duffy, CNN, 16 Feb. 2024 OpenAI is aware that this feature also has the potential to produce deepfakes and misinformation. Steven Levy, WIRED, 15 Feb. 2024 And human rights groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union have warned that overly broad regulations could also raise First Amendment concerns for the journalists who report on deepfakes or political satirists who wield them. Brian Contreras, Scientific American, 8 Feb. 2024 Sora’s hyperrealistic videos could produce more convincing deepfakes. Jeremy Kahn, Fortune, 20 Feb. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'deepfake.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

2018, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of deepfake was in 2018

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Dictionary Entries Near deepfake

Cite this Entry

“Deepfake.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/deepfake. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

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