This smartphone company is doing something incredible to stop deepfakes
Most companies these days are racing to integrate AI into their services. From Apple Intelligence to Google Gemini and Microsoft’s Copilot+ PCs, companies are adding AI into their apps and services wherever they can, allowing users to generate text, images, and videos on their devices. Honor is taking a slightly different tack. While it’s also bringing AI features into its smartphones, it’s putting the focus on “human-centric on-device AI,” allowing you to detect AI deepfakes.
During its keynote at MWC Shanghai 2024, Honor revealed two new AI features: AI Deepfake Detection and AI Defocus Eye Protection. AI Deepfake Detection is exactly what it sounds like. It’s an on-device tool that can examine videos frame-by-frame to evaluate whether it’s generated by AI or not. It does this by looking at eye contact, lighting, image clarity, and video playback to detect things that might be invisible to the human eye. If the feature feels that it’s a deepfake, it will generate a popup saying, “Honor scam alert. It looks like the other person could be using AI to swap their face.”
Currently, the tool is limited to video calls at launch, targeted at helping users detect scammers, but it’s easy to envision Honor allowing you to scan all videos in general. One of the biggest places to benefit might be social media platforms like X (formerly Twitter), TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram, which are becoming overrun with AI-generated garbage.
“AI is revolutionizing our lives and driving the smartphone industry forward, but much of the industry has focused on cloud-based AI, which is just a part of the puzzle. On-device AI, which is run on smartphones that understand us better than any other devices, is uniquely positioned to deliver services that are tailored to us and our preferences,” said George Zhao, CEO of Honor. “At [Honor], we believe on-device AI has the potential to empower users and become more capable in everything they do. We invite all industry players to join us as we explore the untapped potential of on-device AI.”
The other feature Honor is rolling out is more focused on health. AI Defocus Eye Protection is intended to improve your eye health and reduce the cases of nearsightedness that seem to be caused by long-term screen usage. Essentially, this works by turning the screen of Honor phones into defocus glasses, which intentionally defocus the peripheral visual field. This can help maintain clear central vision and slow down eye elongation, which is one of the main causes of nearsightedness. According to Honor, the feature can “decrease transient myopia by 13 degrees on average after reading for 25 minutes,” which is an impressive claim if true.
Both these features aren’t available yet, but we expect them to be available on Honor’s current crop of flagship smartphones or upcoming devices.
