Deepfakes are going mainstream

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Good Morning. This is Refactored, your daily dose of everything tech with a side of memes.

In today's edition: Deepfakes are going mainstream, Tesla inventory drops after major price cuts, and memes.

Reading time is 4 minutes. Let’s dive in.

Main Thing ☕️

Deepfake videos are going mainstream

Don't believe what you see 👀

What: Deepfake is the term used for AI generated fake but convincing audio and video of any person. The tech has been around for couple of years (remember Obama’s deepfake?) but its getting easier to access and cheaper to use.

For instance, watch this video of Tom cruise playing golf and showing you magic tricks.

The video is entirely fake, the person looks and sounds like Tom Cruise, but its not him. It was generated using AI to mimic even the smallest changes in facial expressions and the tonality of voice!

The potential for creating disinformation is terrifying.

Why it matters: The deepfake videos have become more realistic and can be easily created. What you see on TikTok and Reels might not be real.

For instance, here’s a deepfake video of Joe Rogan and Dr. Huberman promoting a health supplement in a viral TikTok ad!

Unfortunately, the AI tools to detect deepfake are far behind and have no clear monetization incentive. For now, consume your reels with a grain of salt.

Big Picture 🔍

Tesla: Model Y inventory falls to only 7 vehicles in the entire US! The 20% price cut last month made the Model Y eligible for US Tax rebate resulting in an effective price cut of 30%!

Meta: Layoffs are not over at Meta, calling 2023 as the 'year of efficiency'. A next wave of layoffs could come in March, with a reorganization to flatten the org structure and remove layers of middle management.

Opera: The web browser is integrating ChatGPT, enabling you to generate summaries of any webpage and provide context to AI for follow-ups.

Cool Tools 🛠️

Note: We’re introducing a new section to help you discover new AI powered tools. Looking for a specific category? Reply to this email.

Context: Convert any content including videos, e-books or podcast from experts into chatbots. Example a chatbot to query Marques Brownlee's youtube content.

Polygot AI: Chat with an AI in Spanish or Chinese to improve your language skills, available on iOS and Android

Hama: Image editing tool that uses AI to quickly erase people or objects from an image. Example - the person was easily erased from picture below.

Meme Time🥹

Quick Bites🍪

• Data heist: Personal data of 3M+ patients stolen in ransomeware attack in California.

• Google: Employees criticize CEO Sundar for ‘rushed, botched’ AI demo.

• NeuraLink: the company is under investigation for possible unsafe transport of contaminated hardware.

• Prompt engineering: How prompts guide behavior and output of Microsoft’s Bing chatbot.

• Eugenics: Would you use Genetic tech to make your offsprings smarter? One-Third of Americans say yes!