Free AI deepfake detector to combat election fakes

TrueMedia.org, a non-profit organisation committed to fighting AI-based disinformation, has launched deepfake detection technology for reporters and other key audiences to use ahead of 2024 elections. While it is intended for the upcoming elections in the United States, it can be applied to deepfake content from anywhere.

The free tool is currently available to government officials, fact checkers, campaign staff, universities, non-profits, and reporters of accredited news organisations – from progressive to conservative and everyone in between.

The organisation has partnered with best-in-class technology providers, researchers, and leading academic labs to create a useful, easy to use, and highly accurate tool. Using an unprecedented model based on AI technology not previously available for public use, the deepfake detector tool allows registered users to input links from TikTok, X, Mastodon, YouTube, Reddit, Instagram, Google Drive, or Facebook to test for signs of media manipulation.

TrueMedia.org’s technology has the ability to analyse suspicious media and identify deepfakes over 90% of the time across audio, images, and videos. Examples of recent deepfakes flagged by TrueMedia.org include an alleged Donald Trump arrest photo and an alleged photo of President Biden with top military personnel. In both cases, the TrueMedia.org tool indicated substantial evidence of manipulation.

“We wanted to get this tool in the hands of newsrooms across America – big and small, covering local and national elections – to help them identify and stop the proliferation of deepfakes,”said TrueMedia.org Founder Dr. Oren Etzioni. “It is our mission to help as many reporters as possible since newsroom staffs are dwindling, deadlines are tighter, and the avalanche of fake social media assets is growing exponentially. This is not about supporting a specific candidate or agenda – it’s about providing reporters with a state-of-the-art deepfake detection tool.”

The launch comes amid a sharp rise in deepfakes due to the broad availability of generative AI and associated tools that facilitate manipulating and forging video, audio, images, and text.

“Generative AI has made it harder for experts like journalists, academics, researchers and misinformation specialists to recognise real content from fakes. Imagine how hard it must be for the general public to do that; TrueMedia.org is a timely and much needed solution to this problem,” said Charles Salter, President & CEO of the News Literacy Project.

The timing is critical as a growing number of Americans obtain their news from social media channels, as evident in a recent Pew study which found the percentage of TikTok users that get news from the platform has doubled since 2020 and is now at 43%. That same study found that over half of U.S. adults regularly get news from social media.

Dr. Etzioni said, “AI is developing at such a rapid pace, we’re nearing a point where people won’t be able to distinguish truth from fiction in images, video, and audio.”

TrueMedia.org is led by Dr. Oren Etzioni, Professor Emeritus at the University of Washington, and previously the Founding Chief Executive Officer at the Allen Institute for AI from 2013-2022. The organisation’s Scientific Advisory Board is composed of leading researchers, fellows, and professors from Stanford University, Brookings, University of Washington, University of Buffalo, and Clemson University. TrueMedia.org is funded by Camp.org, the non-profit organisation of Uber Co-founder Garrett Camp.