AI Foundation and Technical University of Munch partner to fight deepfakes

May 21, 2019, 12:06 pm EDT | Stephen Mayhew

Categories Biometric R&D | Biometrics News

The AI Foundation and the Technical University of Munich’s (TUM’s) Visual Computing Lab have partnered to provide resources for continued research by world-renowned scientist Professor Matthias Niessner and his team on artificial intelligence, deep learning, and computer vision to combat malicious AI and deepfakes.

Research from the lab will be utilized by the AI Foundation in its development and engineering of products for safe and revolutionary AI, and the company will also publish breakthrough research in cognitive science, artificial general intelligence, and human behavior, according to the announcement. The AI Foundation recently added Joscha Bach, Ph.D. and Philip Rao as vice presidents, and they will work closely with researchers at the TUM.

“The authenticity of images and video can no longer be taken at face value, as artificial intelligence and other technologies allow for instant generation of complex fakes. As a result of the proliferation of fakes, human agency and free thinking are at risk,” says AI Foundation CEO Lars Buttler. “With regards to our current global, socio-political climate and the heightened risk of manipulation to world democracies, the AI Foundation is committed to addressing both imminent and distant future threats. By partnering with TUM, the AI Foundation will continue to develop products to protect society from the ills of malicious AI, including deceptive deepfakes and synthetic media.”

Deepfakes have drawn attention from government and industry in both the U.S. and China.

The partnership is part of the AI Foundation’s mission to engage various stakeholder groups in a collective effort to research, identify, and combat manipulative AI. It developed potential fake media detector Reality Defender, which TUM’s research in advanced AI forensics could help evolve along with the advancement of synthetic images. Niessner has published more than 70 academic papers, instructed at Stanford University as a visiting assistant professor, and his research has been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Spiegel and MIT Technology Review. He has also won the Google Faculty Award for Machine Perception, and Nvidia Professor Partnership Award, and the European Research Council Starting Grant’s award for more than $1.5 million in research funding.