“I’m amazed”: the realism of a fake video of Trudeau worries

While Justin Trudeau seems to cling to power despite calls for his resignation, a video produced by artificial intelligence (AI) suggests that he is leaving his post, worried by his hyperrealism in this period of instability.

• Also read: Justin Trudeau will carry out a cabinet shuffle on Friday

“I’m amazed,” says Florent Michelot, professor of educational technologies at Concordia University.

The latter had just seen a hyper-faked video on social networks (deepfake in English), generated by artificial intelligence (AI) where we see the Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau announcing his resignation.

“I leave you in the hands of the one who will be courageous enough to repair the broken pieces,” we can hear from the outset in the video which has been seen nearly 400,000 times since Wednesday.

If the voice we hear is indeed that of the Prime Minister, the words he says are the work of content creator Sirio.

Sirio used a real video of Justin Trudeau from last July, then asked the AI ​​to match his voice to the appearance of the original video.

Caricatured remarks

For Florent Michelot, the realism of this video is extremely worrying.

And it is above all the simplicity with which this was achieved which makes Mr. Michelot fear the worst.

“In a “pre-electoral” period so to speak, given that it is a question of time, we must expect this type of thing to multiply,” worries the professor, who pleads for a better education for the entire population.

But if the video is very realistic, it is nevertheless because of the very words made by the Prime Minister that we can understand that it is false.

“What is said is so caricatured that if anyone listens to the speech they will see that it is not credible. But if the writer had been subtle, that [aurait pu] cause damage,” he laments.