https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&feedformat=atom&user=Mike+Ockexplain xkcd - User contributions [en]2026-05-14T20:14:18ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.30.0https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2650:_Deepfakes&diff=2908052650: Deepfakes2022-07-26T05:08:47Z<p>Mike Ock: cum</p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2650<br />
| date = July 25, 2022<br />
| title = Cum<br />
| image = deepfakes.png<br />
| titletext = If so great a deductive mind as Arthur Conan Doyle can be fooled by the Cottingley Deepfakes, what chance do we mortals have? Soon our very reality will be dictated by the whims of Frances (9) and Elsie (16).<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by a DEEPFAKE - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
A {{w|deepfake}} is an altered video, designed to deceive by replacing a person in a video. White Hat believes that this technology will make it difficult to trust videos. However, Cueball responds by saying that "fakes" have always existed, in photos, and even moreso by people simply lying. White Hat comes around to Cueball's position and says that even the written word is prone to deception and lying.<br />
<br />
The {{w|complaint tablet to Ea-nasir}} is an ancient clay tablet, in which a customer complains to a merchant, Ea-nasir, about his copper ingots. Cueball's last statement says that perhaps this complaint could've been a lie to begin with, and there was nothing wrong with Ea-nasir's wares.<br />
<br />
The title text references the {{w|Cottingley Fairies}}, a series of photographs of "fairies" by two children, Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths, who were 16 and 9, respectively. The photographs received widespread attention when Sir {{w|Arthur Conan Doyle}}, the author of the Sherlock Holmes series, used the photos as proof of paranormal phenomena in a 1920 magazine article. In 1983, Elsie and Frances confessed that the photos had been faked.<br />
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==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
:[White Hat and Cueball walking to the right]<br />
:White Hat: Thanks to deepfakes, soon we won't know what's real anymore. Video will become meaningless.<br />
<br />
:[White Hat and Cueball continuing to walk to the right]<br />
:Cueball: I dunno.<br />
:Cueball: We've had Photoshop for decades and staged photos for centuries.<br />
:Cueball: It hasn't made photos meaningless.<br />
<br />
:[Zoom in on Cueball]<br />
:Cueball: The bottleneck for fake stuff isn't technical. The bottleneck is willingness to lie.<br />
:Cueball: "People lying" is a very old problem.<br />
:Cueball: It's a known exploit.<br />
<br />
:[Zoom back out on White Hat and Cueball who have stopped. White Hat has a hand on his chin. Cueball has his hands to the side.]<br />
:White Hat: I guess technically we've been able to make ''text'' deepfakes for 5,000 years.<br />
:Cueball: Maybe Ea-nasir's copper ingots were actually fine!<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]</div>Mike Ock