The ease of creating deepfake videos and the quality of the results is improving at almost a monthly pace. This is largely down to the growth in the use and quality of AI-powered video generation models.

Gone are the days when you had to use complex video editing and photo manipulation software to change the appearance of a person in a video; now you simply tell your AI of choice who you want the clip to look like, and within a few moments, the change is done.

With this improvement in quality and the ease of production, the question is: How can you spot one?

There is no denying that it is not always easy, but there are a few things to watch out for.

• The Halo Effect: This is where there is a ghost image over the face of the person in the video. It can be quite hard to see on a phone screen but is more noticeable on a larger laptop or computer screen. The halo is caused where the original image is still showing through the overlaid face.
• Short-duration video clips or lots of cuts in a longer clip: AI struggles to hold the illusion together for more than about 8 to 10 seconds, so a short video or one that is made up of lots of short clips can be a giveaway.
• The other giveaway can be the background: While the subject of the video can be very tricky to spot, the AI can sometimes do a shockingly poor job of keeping the background sensible, so you may notice odd behaviour of anything in the background that moves.

The one rule that still holds true is that you should approach anything you receive online with a healthy dose of scepticism. If you’re not expecting something from somebody, then check and double-check, and always make contact with that person via a known method, such as a phone call.