Finally, there's a smartphone built to detect deepfakes

Honor unveiled some incredible new products at IFA last week, including its Magic V3 foldable smartphone, the HONOR MagicPad2 tablet, and its latest AI laptop, the HONOR MagicBook Art 14. But what impressed me even more than its new tech lineup at IFA was its world’s first on-device AI Deepfake Detection technology, which aims to offer users advanced protection against identity theft and misinformation. Unveiled during Honor's in-depth AI panel discussion at IFA,

Unveiled during Honor's in-depth AI panel discussion at IFA, the technology works by employing advanced algorithms to precisely analyse elements of media such as pixel-level synthetic imperfections, and the consistency of face-to-ear hairstyles, to detect manipulated content. While some types of AI-generated content can be easily fished out, that's not always the case as deepfake technology improves. This tool should help to combat issues like impersonation, fake news, and in the worst cases, identity theft.

The trickiest part of navigating the online world of AI involves being able to distinguish between genuine imagery and deceptive alterations. I think it's great that Honor has recognised deepfakes as a genuine problem in media, and has taken measures to create this Deepfake Detection technology to alert its users when they might be being deceived. The AI also intelligently relies on elements such as border compositing artefacts, inter-frame continuity, and the positioning of synthetic traces to detect a deepfake.

The AI panel hosted by George Zhao (HONOR CEO) also focussed on topics like the impact of AI and Snapdragon technology on mobile devices and introduced us to another technology referred to as the Honor on-device AI agent. This can be used for automating complex tasks and enhancing daily productivity on Honor devices (a lot like Microsoft's Copilot assistant).

Not only did the company impress with its new product lineup and AI software innovations, but it also took home 39 "Best of IFA" awards last week. The star of the show was the Honor Magic V3 foldable smartphone, which is currently the world's thinnest foldable phone, even beating out the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6 which Honor did not hesitate to point out, engraving an apology to Samsung owners on the handset in a hilarious marketing stunt.

It didn't stop there, either. During the festivities at IFA last week, Honor drove around the city of Berlin with a mobile billboard featuring positive quotes from members of the general public named "Sam Sung" praising the Honor Magic V3 camera phone. Examples include: "Easily the best foldable phone" - According to Sam Sung, Recruiter, Glasgow. Another read "This phone is so much thinner and lighter than my current phone." - According to Sam Sung, Biomedical Science Graduate, London. I think it's safe to say that Honor's marketing team really deserves a raise.

According to Honor, the Magic V3 smartphone has achieved record-breaking sales figures in the first few days of launch, with a huge increase in demand across EU markets resulting in the need for an early second shipment. So if you're after a new phone, it might be worth checking out. It's available to buy right now in the UK/EU for £1699 (and the discount code AV3EB300 will bag you £300 off!). Not interested in an Android phone? Apple just announced the new iPhone 16 series, which will undoubtedly be the next best iPhone for photography.