AI’s Role in Advancing Deepfake Technology for Good: Medical and Educational Uses

01-Oct-2024

Synthetic media has lately been notorious for all the wrong reasons. Deepfakes known as hyper-realistic forgery powered by AI have been profoundly used for misinformation and fraud by threat actors.  The frequent association of this disruptive technology with fraudulent activities has amassed concerns and apprehensions, thereby garnering a reputation of being a bad machine. However, deepfakes have massive potential to revolutionize the healthcare and educational sectors. This blog intends to shed light on the positive use of Deepfakes particularly in the medical and education industries. We shall explore the potential of deepfakes in education and healthcare and learn how these industries can harness deepfake technology to bring transformational changes. 

Understanding Deepfake

We all have come across deepfake videos where a celebrity or a prominent personality is heard saying things or promoting things that they, in reality, have not. Their faces and voices are swapped and these manipulated videos audio, and images are used for nefarious goals.

To define it in simple words, Deepfake is a technology that manipulates images, videos and audio, by using deep learning and Generative Adversarial Networks (GANS). Deep learning is a special kind of machine learning where algorithms are provided with input examples from which they produce outputs similar to the example it trains and learns from. 

Deep learning involves hidden layers and is implemented by using a neural network that replicates the human brain and how it learns information. Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) is a deep neural network that plays a central role in creating deepfakes. The CNNs are trained on large datasets of real videos or images and they learn to replicate human movements and features, which is the core fundamental of deepfake. Essentially, Deepfake technology is created by employing Deep learning and GANS and involves several steps: 

• Data gathering
• Training the model 
• Rendering and refinement

Let us now explore how deepfake technology can potentially transform the Healthcare and Education sectors.

Revolutionizing Healthcare with Deepfake Technology

The application of Deepfakes promises to revolutionize the healthcare industry by transforming medical training, non-verbal communication and patient education, in particular. While Deepfake technology may not have direct intervention in disease treatments, etc, this disruptive technology has come to play critical roles. Let us outline some of the major interventions of Deepfakes in healthcare. 

Quicken the process of Drug development

The use of AI technology including Deepfakes in designing molecules for potential disease treatments. One recent development in this field is the launch of a SaaS platform called Pharma.AI that aids in expediting drug development and predicting outcomes of clinical trials. The intervention of deepfake technology is projected to reduce the costs and time of the development of drugs. This can immensely help in introducing life-saving drugs within a short period at less cost. 

Enhance medical testing and AI training

One of the innovative developments in Healthcare with the integration of Deepfakes is the construction of artificial patients by using patient data. This enables realistic experimentation and testing removing the risk of actual patients losing lives. This method equips the medical sector to test new diagnostic and monitoring techniques and consequently enables the training of AI to help doctors in making medical decisions. 

Improve patient education

One of the biggest advantages of using deepfakes in healthcare is the possibility of making patients understand complex medical procedures easily. Easily understandable audio and visuals simplifying complex medical concepts and information tailored to the understanding of every age group can be developed. Videos explaining complex exercises after surgery with the voice of a physiotherapist giving step-by-step guidance in the patient's native language, etc can be easily developed with the intervention of deepfake technology. 

Facilitate communication between doctors and patients

Deepfakes can greatly assist in enabling smooth communication between healthcare providers and patients, particularly with those who do not speak a common language. Deepfakes can provide real-time translation of the patient of the doctor's words into the language of their preference. This aids in personalized communication and removes the communication gaps in understanding patients' health complaints and communicating diagnoses and treatments. 

While there are several other benefits that deepfakes can generate, the above-discussed points are the crucial changes poised to transform the healthcare industry. 

The role of Deepfakes in the transformational  path of Education 

The arrival of deepfake technology heralds a new age of possibilities and improvements in education. The idea of a medical student performing simulative surgeries in a life-like setting has become a reality with the arrival of deepfakes. Deepfake technology has the potential to transform the way students learn. For instance, a virtual field trip through realistic replication of historical places and events holds the singular power of offering an engaging learning experience for students. Let us outline again the key transformations that Deepfake technology can usher into the field of education. 

AI Tutor for Effective Learning

The use of Deepfakes in creating AI tutors makes students learn things easier and grasp complex concepts by use of languages tailored to their preferences. Students will better understand lessons and lectures when it is delivered in tailored instruction from a virtual tutor who speaks their own language. This is perhaps one of the most progressive moves in the history of learning, enabling inclusive, accessible and effective learning. This method better addresses the knowledge gaps and helps in explaining concepts clearly. 

Cost-effective learning Opportunity

For students particularly in the science and medical disciplines, deepfakes technology can offer an affordable and easier way of training and visualizing. In the medical field, students train on animatronic robots which are expensive and demand special control rooms. With Deepfakes, GenAI, AR and VR practice rooms students can access less expensive simulation learning environments. Medical students can practice on simulated patients and gain real experience in diagnosis and treatment. 

Similarly, business students can harness deepfake technology and engage themselves in an immersive and gamified learning environment where they can practice high-stakes scenarios like negotiations without the risk of real-world consequences. 

As technological innovations spiral, responsible implementation must be a priority to ensure the world does not become a victim of its own invention. Deepfakes when used with the right intent have immeasurable potential across diverse industries starting from healthcare and education. We have discussed the major transformation deepfake technology has brought about in the education and healthcare industry. All it needs is a positive and responsible integration. 

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