• A deepfake of Volodymyr Zelensky was broadcast on the website of the news channel Ukraine 24 which was hacked.

  • In this video, the Ukrainian president urged his people to lay down their arms.

  • This is the first deepfake broadcast in times of conflict and it does not bode well for the future.

This is a first in wartime.

A deepfake of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urging his people to "give up their arms" ended up last week on the website of the news channel Ukraine 24 which was hacked, on Facebook, Youtube, Telegram and on the Russian social network VKontakte.

As a reminder, a deepfake is a video or audio recording that can make anyone say anything and everything thanks to deep learning.

Using neural networks, the whole image is re-generated from materials that did not exist and this is how last week the world saw the birth of this rather realistic fake video where Volodymyr Zelensky announces his surrender to the Russian invasion.

Until now, it was proof of concept like Barack Obama's video in which he called Donald Trump "deep shit" or, more recently, that of Tom Cruise where we saw him doing a magic trick.

Not to mention the world of porn, a number of deepfakes have burst into the American political sphere in the past two years.

We think in particular of the video of a speech by the president of the house of representatives Nancy Pelosi accused of being drunk by relatives of Donald Trump.

The result, however, was quite crude.

While Zelensky's deepfake was quickly deleted, it doesn't bode well for the conflict (and the future of deepfakes).

Discrediting Zelensky

“We are dealing with an operation and who says operation, says planning, says team in charge of certain tasks.

This is part of Russia's range of action", points out Julien Nocetti, researcher at Geopolitics of the Datasphere (Géode) for whom "it seems plausible that the Russian government is at the origin of it, given the objectives of war against the person of Zelensky”.

But what is the point of broadcasting such a video of the Ukrainian president?

It is "above all to sow doubt and discredit Zelensky who, until now, is very popular and very respected in Ukraine and in the West", he continues.

Showing it encouraging the population to surrender is intended to break the ties between the president and his people.

"This is precisely what Russia seeks in its war aims,

If the deepfake is far from perfect, the voice is not the same and the image can attract attention, however it goes upmarket compared to that of Nancy Pelosi.

"It's still more than enough to convince a fairly large audience," observes the specialist.

The idea is not to challenge the seasoned eye of a handful of geeks but to address the masses who will not be aware that it is a fake.

Deepfakes are part of the Russian arsenal because their potential has increased and they allow more massive dissemination of more or less realistic content.

Perfect for manipulating minds.

The nuclear threat

And that's just a taste.

It is not excluded that a deepfake of Joe Biden or Emmanuel Macron could create an escalation in the conflict.

“All the doctrine and all the practice of Russian foreign policy consists in being on an equal footing with the United States,” notes Julien Nocetti.

Deepfakes suggesting actions by Joe Biden appear realistic.”

Imagine a fake video in which the French president or his American counterpart wave the nuclear threat, the consequences could be worrying.

“It might also be a sign of weakness on the part of Russia,” he nuances.

This shows a form of desperation of the Kremlin on the Ukrainian theater;

that headlong rush is the only avenue that would allow Russia to pull out of the game.

At the experimental stage a short time ago, deepfakes are gradually turning into communication weapons.

We are far from having seen all that this technology has in store for us and that is not reassuring.

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"If my work raises awareness, it makes me happy", says the creator of Tom Cruise's deepfakes

  • fake news

  • Russia

  • Culture

  • War in Ukraine

  • Volodymyr Zelensky

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