27 votes

South Park creators launch new political satire series with AI-generated deepfakes

15 comments

  1. [8]
    mrbig
    (edited )
    Link
    This is fun and scary. Right now deepfakes are impressive but noticeable. In 10 years they’re gonna be literally indistinguishable.

    This is fun and scary. Right now deepfakes are impressive but noticeable. In 10 years they’re gonna be literally indistinguishable.

    8 votes
    1. [2]
      Omnicrola
      Link Parent
      It's some pretty well executed fakery. It actually took me a minute to realize that the host is a fake DT. Which is to say, I though that was a real actor with an obvious wig who looked similar to...

      It's some pretty well executed fakery. It actually took me a minute to realize that the host is a fake DT. Which is to say, I though that was a real actor with an obvious wig who looked similar to Trump. The thing that usually trips my brain is the way even most of the well done fakes move not quite correctly. This one is very well done in that respect, the motion matching is almost unnoticeable. Once you start looking for it though, it sticks out.

      Not the biggest fan of Trey and Matt, but I hope this brings a lot more attention to how easy it is to make these.

      9 votes
      1. mrbig
        (edited )
        Link Parent
        Oh I used to love South Park before they adopted season long arcs. They’re at their best at ultra topical absurdist humor. They also took a weird stand against political correctness with PC...

        Oh I used to love South Park before they adopted season long arcs. They’re at their best at ultra topical absurdist humor.

        They also took a weird stand against political correctness with PC principal. Not that you cannot criticize political correctness, though.

        4 votes
    2. [5]
      mat
      Link Parent
      10 years? Bear in mind Matt and Trey aren't trying very hard to be realistic here. If you had someone trying to mimic the mannerisms of the person being faked, and used the current cutting edge...

      10 years? Bear in mind Matt and Trey aren't trying very hard to be realistic here. If you had someone trying to mimic the mannerisms of the person being faked, and used the current cutting edge voice synth stuff for voice synth, the results would be a lot more convincing.

      Video good enough to fool a decent percentage of people is easily doable now if you have enough compute hardware/time. I'd say 2-3 years at the most before the technology is good enough to be unnoticeable by anyone without expert knowledge.

      What's interesting is we're not seeing the deepfaked viral stuff which shows Biden eating babies or whatever. If I were the Bad Guys I'd be all over that.

      3 votes
      1. [2]
        mrbig
        Link Parent
        Well, technically 10 years does not exclude the possibility of the same thing happening in 1 :P I was just being safe.

        Well, technically 10 years does not exclude the possibility of the same thing happening in 1 :P

        I was just being safe.

        2 votes
        1. mat
          Link Parent
          Technically correct is the best kind of correct. :) Fair point though.

          Technically correct is the best kind of correct. :)

          Fair point though.

          2 votes
      2. [2]
        Comment deleted by author
        Link Parent
        1. mat
          Link Parent
          Well, yes. Strategically, what I'd be doing would be releasing a few videos of my opponent doing/saying very mildly bad things. Not eating babies because that's obviously fake, but some "off...

          Well, yes. Strategically, what I'd be doing would be releasing a few videos of my opponent doing/saying very mildly bad things. Not eating babies because that's obviously fake, but some "off camera" remarks which would hurt their support among swing voters. Some quiet leaks of $candidate or members of their team saying nothing hugely damning, just the sort of thing which would start to nudge a few % of people away. Nothing too obviously made up, and I wouldn't leak it to the media, I'd spread it via highly targetted social media ads.

          In the very specific and relatively unique case of Trump, he doesn't actually care if people are talking about him saying he'll grab people by the pussy or talking about him doing something good (has he done anything good?), what he cares is that people are talking about him.

          1 vote
      3. moocow1452
        Link Parent
        There might be a deep fake uncanny valley information where if it is something you can see in front of you, you have to accept or reject it outright where if it's a rumor or "people saying," it...

        What's interesting is we're not seeing the deepfaked viral stuff which shows Biden eating babies or whatever. If I were the Bad Guys I'd be all over that.

        There might be a deep fake uncanny valley information where if it is something you can see in front of you, you have to accept or reject it outright where if it's a rumor or "people saying," it can affect your decision making even if it doesn't have your full attention.

        1 vote
  2. [5]
    culturedleftfoot
    Link
    Sincere question here... will people really find this any measure of funny? Sure, the deepfake stuff is interesting, but it seems wasted here. Even as someone who liked the occasional South Park...

    Sincere question here... will people really find this any measure of funny? Sure, the deepfake stuff is interesting, but it seems wasted here. Even as someone who liked the occasional South Park episode, this comedy is not only bad, it's about 20 years out of date.

    8 votes
    1. [3]
      cfabbro
      (edited )
      Link Parent
      Yeah, South Park may have juvenile humour overall, but at least it has some depth to it often enough to balance it out a bit... whereas this was juvenile in the extreme from beginning to end, and...

      Yeah, South Park may have juvenile humour overall, but at least it has some depth to it often enough to balance it out a bit... whereas this was juvenile in the extreme from beginning to end, and so was pretty disappointing. And as much as I occasionally enjoy South Park too, I honestly don't trust Trey Parker & Matt Stone with a show this overtly political either, since they are openly hardcore Libertarians and pretty vocal with their bullshit "both sides are equally bad" views.

      11 votes
      1. [2]
        Tygrak
        Link Parent
        I am a pretty big fan of South Park, so when I watched this I was surprised how unfunny this was. I thought Matt and Trey are funny? How did they manage to make something this unfunny then? The...

        I am a pretty big fan of South Park, so when I watched this I was surprised how unfunny this was. I thought Matt and Trey are funny? How did they manage to make something this unfunny then?

        The deepfake stuff was certainly interesting though.

        2 votes
        1. cfabbro
          (edited )
          Link Parent
          IKR? It was pretty weak, IMO. And the fact they chose to lampoon Al Gore again, a Democrat who hasn't been politically relevant for 20 years now, and who most of this show's target age group...

          IKR? It was pretty weak, IMO. And the fact they chose to lampoon Al Gore again, a Democrat who hasn't been politically relevant for 20 years now, and who most of this show's target age group probably won't even recognize, highlights just how incredibly out of touch they are when it comes to American politics... which is not a great sign for something meant to be "political satire".

          6 votes
    2. nothis
      Link Parent
      Trey Parker & Matt Stone always had a funniness problem. Their thing is breaking taboos and it used to be funny because of how absurd it was to see a kid in a Hitler costume and whatnot. But...

      Trey Parker & Matt Stone always had a funniness problem. Their thing is breaking taboos and it used to be funny because of how absurd it was to see a kid in a Hitler costume and whatnot. But reality has caught up. A lot of “Southpark stuff” is actually happening now and it’s more depressing than funny.

      5 votes
  3. petrichor
    Link
    I'm particularly surprised that they decided to start this up so close to the election. Was the initial launch delayed? Do they have plans for both potential outcomes of the election? If Biden...

    I'm particularly surprised that they decided to start this up so close to the election.

    Was the initial launch delayed? Do they have plans for both potential outcomes of the election? If Biden wins, how long would Matt and Trey be able to keep this up, if so much of it revolves around making fun of the current administration?

    3 votes
  4. Grendel
    Link
    Any chance this could be marked NSFW? I'm pretty sure if HR and been walking by when the Carry Underwood puppet came up I'd have been in big trouble. (also I should have known better since it's...

    Any chance this could be marked NSFW? I'm pretty sure if HR and been walking by when the Carry Underwood puppet came up I'd have been in big trouble. (also I should have known better since it's from the creators of south park).

    11 votes