Elon Musk’s X tackles deepfakes with improved image matching

Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has announced a new initiative aimed at combating the spread of misleading media known as deepfakes. Musk claimed that this move “should make a big difference in defeating deepfakes (and superficial fakes).”

Shallowfakes, distinguished from deepfakes by being created without the aid of artificial intelligence (AI), include manipulated photos, videos, and voice clips created through widely accessible editing and software tools.

In a related development, X has implemented a feature where image comments automatically appear on posts with matching images.

According to a company spokesperson, “It’s common for these notes to correspond to dozens, hundreds, and sometimes thousands of messages. Now you can see how many messages an image note corresponds to right in the note details.”

During the global election season, concerns have been raised by experts about the spread of disinformation and the potential impact of deepfakes on electoral processes. The independent Oversight Board, made up of 22 global experts on human rights and freedom of expression, has called for urgent action to tackle the threat of deepfakes to global elections.