c/deep-fake-detectives

Caught my first really subtle fake in a news clip from last Tuesday

It was a local weather report and the anchor's left eye had a weird, tiny stutter in the blink. Has anyone else noticed that eye movement is still a big giveaway?

Okay, this deepfake of a local mayor from last month is getting scary good

I was checking out a clip from a town hall meeting in Springfield from six months ago, then saw a new 'speech' posted last week. The lip sync is perfect now, no weird blurring around the mouth. The giveaway was the left ear, it didn't move at all when his head turned, just stayed totally still like a sticker. Three months ago, that same ear would have been a melted mess. Has anyone else seen a specific body part that gives away the latest fakes?

I was only looking at the eyes for fakes and missed a huge tell

I watched a clip of a supposed interview from last month, and the guy's hairline didn't move at all when he turned his head. It was stuck in place like a picture. I mean, I spent so long checking for blinking that I never looked at the hair. Has anyone else caught a fake from something simple like that?

My neighbor showed me a fake video of our mayor last weekend

He came over with his phone, really excited about this clip of the mayor saying something wild. It was at my place in Austin, just sitting on the porch. I looked close and saw the mouth movements were off, like they didn't match the words right. He was totally fooled until I pointed it out. How do you guys usually explain the mouth thing to people who don't know about deepfakes?

Hot take: that viral 'mayor' speech from last month was a bad fake

I was watching the supposed town hall address from Springfield, and the guy's left ear never moved once, not even a twitch. I ran it through three different detection tools and they all flagged the same unnatural jawline shift. What's the most obvious tell you've seen in a political deepfake lately?

Just watched a deep fake of a senator from Florida and the lip sync was off by half a second

I was checking out a clip that claimed to show Senator Marco Rubio saying something wild. The mouth movements didn't match the audio at all, especially on words with 'p' and 'b' sounds. It's a classic sign of a bad fake where the AI didn't get the timing right. Has anyone else seen a deep fake where the audio was just slightly out of step?

I was sure that viral clip of a politician yelling was fake, but the lip sync was perfect.

I checked the original speech on C-SPAN and the audio matched frame by frame, which really surprised me. What's a good method to verify audio besides just looking at the mouth?

Tried using a free AI voice clone tool on my own videos and the results were way too good

I wanted to test how easy it was to make a fake, so I used a free online tool to clone my voice from a 30 second clip of me reading a recipe. I fed it new text, something I'd never say, about a fake product. The audio it made was scary good, no weird robotic sounds at all. I played it for my roommate and he totally believed it was me, which was the opposite of what I expected. I thought these free tools would be obvious junk. It made me realize that the audio side of fakes is getting really hard to spot without special software. Now I'm torn between thinking we should push for better detection tech or if we need laws to limit these tools. Has anyone else had a test go sideways and make you more worried instead of less?

I've been tracking the lip sync errors in political deepfakes, and the gap between good and bad ones shrank from about 2 seconds to almost nothing in just the last 8 months.

What specific new tool or method do you think is closing that gap so fast, because it's getting scary good?

I used to just look for weird faces, but a video from last month's election in Mexico changed my mind.

Now I check the audio first for that robotic 'breathing' between words. It's way faster and catches more fakes before I even get to the visual tells. What's your go-to first check on a sus video?

I think we're focusing too much on the eyes when checking for fakes

For a year, I only looked at blinking and pupil shape, but a fake I saw last week had perfect eyes and messed up ear shadows. How do you check the edges of the face now?

My cousin's kid asked me why the president on TV looked 'shiny'

He's eight. We were watching a news clip. He pointed at the screen and said the person's face looked wrong, like a plastic mask. I checked the video myself. The lighting on the left cheek didn't match the neck at all. No natural skin texture. It was a deep fake, a pretty good one too. Made me realize kids might spot the weird stuff we adults just accept. Has anyone else had a kid point out a fake before you did?

Vent: I almost flagged a real interview as a deepfake because of a weird audio sync

Was reviewing a clip from a 2020 press conference in Denver and the mayor's mouth movements looked off by a few frames, but it turned out the original broadcast had a known encoding glitch. Has anyone else had a real technical flaw trick them into a false positive?

My cousin sent me a video of my grandpa giving financial advice, but he died in 2010. It was the most unsettling week of my life.

I finally realized why my aunt's 'new' video message looked so weird - she never blinks.

Unpopular opinion: I think the best way to learn is by looking at the bad fakes first

About three years ago, I was trying to learn this stuff on my own and felt totally lost. I kept watching those super polished, scary-good fake videos of politicians and just got frustrated because I couldn't see the flaws. Then, on a forum, someone told me to go look at the early, janky deepfakes from 2017 and 2018. I spent a whole weekend digging through old YouTube clips and archive sites. Seeing those weird, blurry jawlines and the eyes that never quite blinked right was a game changer. It taught me what to look for in the skin texture and light reflections. Now, when I see a new fake, my brain spots those same little tells, even when they're much better hidden. Has anyone else found that starting with the obvious, bad examples made it click for them?

Just found out a huge number of deepfakes are flagged by audio, not video

I was reading a report from a university lab in Boston, and it said over 60% of the fakes they catch have weird audio glitches like breaths not matching mouth movements. I always focused on the eyes and skin, but now I'm listening for weird pauses. What's the most obvious audio tell you've heard in a fake?

Rant: A viewer called me out for missing the lip sync error in that viral campaign ad

I was breaking down that deep fake of a senator from last month, focusing on the usual stuff like skin texture and lighting. I spent like an hour on it, posted my analysis, and felt pretty good. Then this one commenter, screen name 'FrameCheck42', just dropped a link with the timestamp. They said, 'You're looking at the wrong thing. Watch the lower lip on the word 'promise,' it's a frame off from the audio.' I went back and checked, and they were totally right. I'd been so focused on the eyes and the hairline that I completely missed the mouth. It was a tiny glitch, but once you see it, you can't unsee it. I felt like an idiot, but it was a solid lesson. Now I always run the audio through a separate waveform viewer while I watch the video on mute first. Has anyone else had a viewer point out something obvious you missed? How do you make sure you're checking everything?

I was watching a political speech from 2020 and something about the mouth movements felt off, so I ran it through two different detection tools.

One was a free online checker that just gave a 'likely fake' percentage. The other was a forensic analysis plugin for DaVinci Resolve that my buddy let me use. The free tool said 87% fake, but the plugin showed me exactly why: inconsistent lighting reflections in the eyes and a weird blur pattern on the teeth that didn't match the rest of the face. Seeing the specific artifacts made it click for me. Has anyone else found that just getting a 'score' is way less useful than actually seeing the breakdown of flaws?

My uncle, a retired video editor, told me to always check the earlobes for unnatural blurring, and it saved me from sharing a fake political clip last month.

He said it over coffee in Chicago, and sure enough, when I paused that video of the senator, the blur around her left ear was a dead giveaway, so what's the one tip you've gotten that actually works?

I lost $250 to a fake video of a home repair expert

A few months back, I saw a video on social media that looked like a well known home repair guy showing a simple fix for a leaky faucet. The voice and face seemed right, so I bought the special tool kit he was pushing for $250. When it arrived, the tools were cheap junk that broke on first use. Looking back, the video had that slight lip-sync lag and his skin looked too smooth, like plastic. I was so focused on the problem I needed to solve that I missed the clear signs. It was a hard lesson in checking the source before you click buy. Has anyone else been tricked by a fake how-to video like that?

I watched a fake video of my favorite band and it felt completely wrong

So last Tuesday, I was scrolling and saw a clip of this band I love, The Echoes, playing a new song live. I got super excited, but something felt off. The singer's mouth movements were a tiny bit out of sync with the vocals, like a bad dub. His eyes also had this weird, glassy stare that never blinked. I spent the next hour, no joke, just looking at the video frame by frame. I noticed the lighting on his face didn't quite match the stage lights, and a guitar strap seemed to phase through his jacket for a single frame. It was a deep fake, and a pretty good one, but those small tells gave it away. It really messed with me because I almost shared it with all my friends. Has anyone else had that gut feeling about a video before you even spotted the hard proof?

My neighbor showed me a video of his dead dad giving a speech and asked if it was real

He brought his laptop over last Tuesday, all excited about this clip he found online of his father, who passed in 2019, talking about family. The mouth movements were a bit too smooth and the skin texture on the neck looked like plastic, which are classic tells. Has anyone else had a friend bring them something this personal and emotional that turned out to be fake?

My cousin sent me a video of my own voice saying I'd pay for his new phone

I was having a normal Tuesday until my cousin called, super excited about the phone I 'promised' to buy him, and he played back a clip of my voice saying exactly that. I spent the next two hours walking him through the weird mouth blurring in the clip and how the background sound didn't match my kitchen. Ever had someone try to use a deep fake on you personally?

Rant: A fake video of my local mayor got shared around our town Facebook group

Someone made a deepfake of our mayor, Mr. Jenkins, saying he was raising property taxes by 50%, and it spread like crazy last Tuesday. I knew it was off because his mouth movements looked weird and his voice had that flat, robotic tone in a few spots. What's the best way to calmly point out the signs of a fake to people who aren't looking for them?