Los Angeles Times

Experts fear voters will be deceived by 'deepfake' videos

WASHINGTON - Election officials and social media firms already flummoxed by hackers, trolls and bots are bracing for a potentially more potent weapon of disinformation as the 2020 election approaches - doctored videos, known as "deepfakes," that can be nearly impossible to detect as inauthentic.

In tech company board rooms, university labs and Pentagon briefings, technologists on the front lines of cybersecurity have sounded alarms over the threat, which they say has increased markedly as the technology to make convincing fakes has become increasingly available.

On Tuesday, leaders in artificial intelligence plan to unveil a tool to push back - it includes scanning software that the University of California, Berkeley has been developing in partnership with the U.S. military, which the industry will start providing to journalists and political operatives. The goal is to give the media and campaigns

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