The Deepfakes Analysis Unit (DAU) completed a year of its launch on March 25, 2025. The period between Jan.1, 2025 to March 31, 2025 marked the last quarter of DAU’s first year of operations. The primary source of audio and video content analysed through this report was DAU’s dedicated tipline and a very small number of escalations submitted to the DAU Secretariat by its fact-checking partners.
Some of the trends that stood out in the audio and video content that we analysed are as follows:
- Financial scams continued to be the dominant theme in the A.I. manipulated videos analysed by the DAU this quarter.
- The use of mirrored clips to produce an A.I. manipulated video is a new trend that became known through a video that apparently showed Sudha Murty promoting a financial investment platform.
- In many A.I. manipulated videos, random still imagery was visible at frequent intervals. DAU’s expert partners saw this as a deliberate attempt to disrupt detection algorithms which operate on key frames.
- A.I. manipulated videos commonly direct people to fraudulent websites, one such website was designed to emulate the official website of Times of India.
- The same video clips of business leaders, politicians, and other public figures are recycled and used in multiple A.I. manipulated videos.
- Increasing the length of A.I. manipulated videos to up to 10 minutes by adding a single static image or a series after the initial few minutes of audio-visual content seems like a growing trend. DAU’s expert partners suggest that this might be an attempt to bypass content moderation filters.
You can read the full report here.
