Read on Twitter
What may appear to be an image of Tacoma, US, it is, in fact, a simulated one. Welcome to the brand new world of deepfake satellite images. https://www.washington.edu/news/2021/04/21/a-growing-problem-of-deepfake-geography-how-ai-falsifies-satellite-images/
“This isn’t just Photoshopping things. It’s making data look uncannily realistic,” said Bo Zhao, assistant professor of geography at the UW and lead author of the study (2/...)
This simplified illustration shows how a simulated satellite image (right) can be generated by putting a base map (City A) into a deepfake satellite image model. This model is created by distinguish a group of base map and satellite image pairs from a second city (City B). (3/..)
Experts already warned for years that deep fakes images of Earth could be used to trick military analysts into seeing objects that aren't really there https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-6882893/Deep-fakes-images-Earth-used-trick-military-analysts-experts-say.html
Satellite Image Spoofing was mentioned in this 2018 study https://drops.dagstuhl.de/opus/volltexte/2018/9395/pdf/LIPIcs-GISCIENCE-2018-67.pdf(4....)
The author created a completely fake city, see https://chunxxu.github.io/fakegeo/sis.html (5/..)
What is the point of Fake Satellite Images? Next few tweets will tell (8/8)
“The National Geospatial-Intelligance Agency (NGA) is one of the most important agencies in the U.S. that you've probably never heard of.
The NGA gives information to the president and his cabinet on counterterrorism and weapons of mass destruction.” https://www.photographytalk.com/china-is-a-world-leader-in-faking-images-with-ai (9/.)
The NGA gives information to the president and his cabinet on counterterrorism and weapons of mass destruction.” https://www.photographytalk.com/china-is-a-world-leader-in-faking-images-with-ai (9/.)
“Satellite imagery is constantly being used by militaries in order to gain tactical advantages over other countries.” (10/10)
Personally, I see a big difference in impact of deep fake geography versus deep fake videos and photos. The next tweets even explain why (11/..)
A deepfake photo or video which seems to be unique can't be compared to other sources because they don't exist. A deepfake sat images can easily be compared to other images: by double checking the area with an satellite (12/...)
So this “simcity 2030” game of deception probably only works to deceive people who can't double-check the info. Most intelligence services can (13/..)
End of rant(14/14)
