For those who aren’t yet familiar with the term “deepfake,” it’s a digital representation of someone that has been tweaked or altered to appear as a different person. It need not necessarily be the result of AI, although that’s a growing problem as AI becomes more capable and more available to the average person on the street.

Norton, the antivirus security giant, has released a new Deepfake Protection tool to help users detect compelling deepfake videos on YouTube. Although it’s still in its early phases, users of Norton 360 products on Android or iOS can now utilize the tool at no extra cost.

not getting faked out

Deepfakes existed years before publicly available generative AI models were available, and many were already quite convincing. Most often, deepfakes took the form of a person’s body with another person’s head or face swapped on. It remains a massive problem in porn, and increasingly it’s being used to spread political misinformation, too.

The Deepfake Protection tool is integrated within the Norton Genie AI Assistant, an innovative chat feature that helps users identify and avoid common scams. “Norton Deepfake Protection… includes the ability to analyze audio and visual content for signs of manipulation,” according to Norton’s July 31 press release.

“Beyond detecting AI-generated voices used in fraudulent schemes, the feature provides an added layer of contextual protection by spotting inconsistencies or faint deformations in the physical features of people appearing in videos.”

Norton Deepfake Protection was already available in a very limited capacity on certain Microsoft Copilot+ PC. Now Norton has begun to roll out the feature more widely to anyone who downloads the Android or iOS Norton 360 apps. It’s still in what Norton calls an early-access phase.

Right now, Deepfake Protection only works on English-language videos on YouTube on Norton’s Android and iOS, although Norton says they plan to expand it to other languages, video platforms, and more desktop operating systems in future updates.