TIL that blinking patterns in old video interviews can expose deepfakes

I was watching a 2018 interview with a politician on YouTube the other day and something felt off about their eyes. They blinked way too evenly like every 3 seconds on the dot. Real people blink irregularly especially when they're thinking or stressed. So I started checking other deepfake videos online and noticed the same pattern - perfect mechanical blinks. Turns out most deepfake algorithms still struggle to replicate natural blinking rhythms because it's such a subconscious thing. I tried this trick on a few suspected deepfakes from last week and caught two of them just by counting blink intervals. Has anyone else found a weird tell like this that actually works for spotting fakes?

3 comments

3 Comments

gray_morgan1mo ago

Man that blinking thing is wild, I never would've thought to look for that. I remember watching a video of someone giving a speech and they barely blinked at all for like a minute straight. It creeped me out but I couldn't put my finger on why. Now I'm gonna be counting blinks on every video I see. It's scary how good these fakes are getting, but at least we've got little tells like this to hold onto.

kaigibson1mo ago

Oh man, that's wild. Honestly, if I ever end up in a deepfake someday, I'm gonna be the guy blinking every two seconds like I got something in my eye. Tbh, I can't even keep a straight face in a normal video call without looking like I'm about to sneeze, so at least my fakes would be easy to spot. Ngl, the whole uncanny valley thing gets me every time, but if blaming it on blink patterns is the move, then I'm all for it. Plus, it gives me an excuse to spend more time creepily staring at people's faces online.

laura_chen411mo ago

@kaigibison @gray_morgan the blink thing is real, I used to work with a forensic analyst who'd spot fakes by counting them frame by frame... save yourself the headache and just watch for people who blink at totally random intervals, not the natural rhythm.