Deepfake or cheap fake? Video making false accusations against Walz goes viral – Australian Associated Press

AAP FACT CHECK – Artificial intelligence experts agree that a video claiming to show a victim of an attack by US vice presidential candidate Tim Walz is fake – but their conflicting assessments of how it was produced reflect the increasing sophistication of fake videos that seek to spread disinformation.

The video, which has gone viral on social media on various platforms including X, Instagram and Facebook, claims to be Matthew Metro, a former student of a school where Tim Walz taught. A fake account on X called Matt Metro also contained the video.

But the video does not show the real Matthew Metro, and intelligence agencies believe it is part of a Russian disinformation plot.

One of many similar posts claims: “Matthew Metro has come forward and officially accused Tim Walz of sexual assault while Walz was his teacher at Mankato West High School in 1997. This is disturbing.”

The four-minute video begins with a man claiming he is Matthew Metro and that he is a “sexual assault survivor.”

He says he was a student at Mankato West High School in Minnesota (34 seconds), that Tim Walz was his teacher (1:11), and claims that Mr. Walz groped and kissed him (starting at 2:51).

Tim Walz was a teacher at Mankato West High, as has been widely reported.

But the man in the video is not Mr. Metro. The Washington Post tracked down the real Matthew Metro, who said he attended the school but is not the man in the video.

He told the newspaper that he had never met Mr. Walz and that no such attack had occurred.

The real Mr. Metro was also interviewed by Hawaii News Now, in which his voice sounds completely different from the one in the doctored video.

AAP Fact Check contacted Mr. Metro but did not receive a response within the stated timeframe.

The fake video contains plenty of other warning signs. The voice often seems out of sync with the mouth and the speech often appears unnatural.

AAP Fact Check asked two experts to review the video for signs of AI.

Dr. Andrew Lensen, a senior lecturer in artificial intelligence at Victoria University in Wellington, said he believed the video was likely an AI deepfake.

However, he said it was difficult to be sure given the low resolution of the video, although he said this was often a tactic used to hide deepfakes as lower quality makes them harder to spot.

“The biggest sign for me is the teeth, where the upper and lower lines of the teeth often merge into the frames before the ‘person’ closes their lips,” said Dr. Lenses.

“There are also a lot of pauses in the video, where the camera suddenly seems to zoom out or in from one frame to the next, especially between sentences/statements.

“While it is possible that the person in the story created the video from several fragments, it seems unusual to split the video in this way.

“Finally, the movements of the eyebrows, upper forehead and even the eyes feel strange as he talks – the eyebrows are raised at times that do not correspond to the speech.”

Professor Hany Farid of UC Berkeley, an expert in digital forensics, disinformation and image analysis, assessed the video differently.

“Aside from the biometric inconsistencies, I am not convinced that this video was AI-generated or AI-manipulated,” Professor Farid said. AAP Fact Check.

He analyzed three aspects of the video, using models trained to distinguish real human voices, faces and mouth movements from AI-generated or manipulated versions.

“The audio shows only minor evidence that it is AI-generated, but not overwhelmingly so,” Farid said.

“The face shows no evidence that it was generated by AI.

“And… I find no evidence of a deepfake with lip sync.”

He added that “there are none of the usual signs that this is a deepfake video in terms of things like inconsistencies between the head movements and the spoken word.”

“I think it’s more likely that this is a cheap fake where someone is simply pretending to be someone else.”

Following the video’s wide spread online, U.S. intelligence agencies said Russians seeking to disrupt the U.S. election had created and amplified a “rigged video” attempting to smear Mr. Walz with abuse allegations, according to The Washington Post.

An official said Russian agents had tried to use videos of people speaking directly into a camera and make them go viral on social media.

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