How can cloud infrastructure help you?
Cloud solutions, like stack on Microsoft Azure or AWS, are what make modern IT systems work. Cloud infrastructure is essential there, thanks to the countless benefits it provides. Think about scalability and flexibility. You can increase or decrease storage capacity or compute power, adjusting to your current needs. All in a matter of seconds. Consider cost savings. There’s no need to buy new hardware and manage the entire IT infrastructure. You can pay a provider for that. Updates happen automatically. You gain accessibility. You can access your data and applications from anywhere. Your data has automatic backups and you don’t need to take care of cybersecurity, your provider does.
With cloud infrastructure you can:
- Deploy, run and monitor run AI models
- Deploy custom LLMs
- Store customer and operational data
- Implement data analytics tools
- Host dashboards and internal applications
- Automatically send the reports by email
But there is more. Thanks to well-designed cloud infrastructure you can do something truly good. You can educate the public about deepfakes.
What links cloud infrastructure and deepfakes?
Back in 2020, Datali built something extraordinary. Thanks to our expertise in cloud infrastructure, we co-created a unique project. We cooperated with the Ravensburg Art Museum, spreading deepfake awareness in a project called Alter Ego.
For every emerging technology, there’s a time when two groups appear. The one group, the majority of people don’t know that something is actually possible. The second group can already use the technology. They have the power to take advantage and trick them.
This is where AlterEgo comes in. We delved into identity and deepfakes. We used human detection, deepfake video generation, and face recognition to create an illusion. But all that wouldn’t be possible without the cloud infrastructure, right adjusted to the project challenges.
For visitors, the experience was as follows. On the entrance they encountered the mirror with an eye-catching quote. The quote made them stop, and think. After a couple of seconds they continued their museum visit. While leaving the exhibition, they came across another mirror. But this time, it showed themselves doing things they never did.
The mirror was hiding a screen. This screen played deepfakes, just like the one shown above.
But behind it was the entire cloud infrastructure that made it possible. It enabled the processing of a huge amount of data in real time. Its capacity was marvellous – generating up to 70 deepfakes simultaneously, covering around 200 people in a couple of hours. All of that was fully automated.
Behind the scenes: the cloud infrastructure setup
The cloud setup was essential for the project performance. Although invisible to the visitors, there was the entire system that made the experience possible.
- Behind the first mirror, there is a hidden camera. The photos are sent, and preprocessed. For instance, the best one was chosen.
- Next, pictures are stored in a blob storage. Each new picture gets automatically transferred to the queue storage. It stores up to 60 photos at the same time. This serverless implementation uses Azure Functions.
- With 20 machines running at the same time, the images are queued, and then distributed to the first available machine.
- Later, the deepfake gets generated. The deepfake is sent to the blob storage. The deep learning models enabled image animation and video upscaling. It was deployed using Azure Machine Learning Endpoints.
- When the visitor stands in front of the second mirror, the other picture is taken. Using a face recognition algorithm, this picture is matched with the right deepfake.
- After that, the deepfake is played, surprising the visitor.
The effect made the visitor wonder. What has just happened? This was me, or not? The confusion and surprise were real, forcing to reflect. Reflect and remember that deepfake can be astonishingly real.
The value behind a cloud infrastructure
We are confident: the Alter Ego project illustrates how cloud infrastructure can support ambitious and impactful projects. This is just the beginning of what cloud technology can achieve. Its flexibility and scalability open doors to many innovative and outstanding projects in your enterprise.
The principles of cloud-powered scalability, data processing, and automation are universal. The ability to process large-scale data, automate workflows, and deploy AI models can leverage many projects. No matter, if they are driven by a social, or by a business purpose. Remember how cloud infrastructure can help you? Just take a look again:
- You can increase or decrease storage capacity or compute power.
- There’s no need to buy new hardware and manage the entire IT infrastructure. Consider cost and time savings.
- Updates are automatic.
- Access to your data and applications is not limited to your location.
- Automatic data backups secure your back.
With cloud infrastructure, you can focus on what matters most. For that, we can setup your cloud infrastructure.
