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Worried about deepfakes? This Aussie tech tool poisons your data to fool AI
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November 10 2025 - 12:27pm
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November 10 2025 - 12:27pm
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As police grapple with a surge in AI-generated child abuse material and sophisticated deepfake scams , an Australian university has developed a tool to disrupt cybercrime.
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The technology, known as ‘data poisoning’, subtly alters an image to make it significantly more difficult to reproduce, manipulate or misuse with AI .
An AI-generated image (left) fails to convincingly replicate the original (right) after using the Monash tech tool. Pictures supplied
The tool, called ‘Silverer’, has been developed by the AI for Law Enforcement and Community Safety (AiLECS) Lab, a collaboration between the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and Monash University in Melbourne.
AiLECS researcher, project lead and PhD candidate Elizabeth Perry said “before a person uploads images on social media or the internet, they can modify them using Silverer”.
“This will alter the pixels to trick AI models and the resulting generations will be very low-quality, covered in blurry patterns, or completely unrecognisable,” Ms Perry said.
AiLECS researcher Elizabeth Perry. Picture supplied
“Offenders making deepfakes often try to use a victim’s data to fine-tune an AI of their own; Silverer modifies the image by adding a subtle pattern to the image, which tricks the AI into learning to reproduce the pattern, rather than generate images of the victim.”
The AI-disrupter is in its prototype stage, after one year of development, with initial plans to use the tool internally within the AFP.
‘Building hurdles’ for misuse
AFP Commander Rob Nelson said the overarching goal of the Silverer project was to provide everyday Australians with tools to protect their data and social media.
“Many harmful deepfakes are generated using only a small handful of training data images,” he said.
“If a user can poison those images before uploading them, it makes it significantly harder for criminals to generate malicious images of that user.
“We don’t anticipate any single method will be capable of stopping the malicious use or re-creation of data, however, what we are doing is similar to placing speed bumps on an illegal drag racing strip. We are building hurdles to make it difficult for people to misuse these technologies.”
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Anna Houlahan
Journalist
Anna Houlahan reports on crime and social issues affecting regional and remote Australia in her role as national crime reporter at Australian Community Media (ACM). She was ACM’s Trainee of the Year in 2023 and, aside from reporting on crime, has travelled the country as a journalist for Explore Travel Magazine. Reach out with news or updates to [email protected]
Anna Houlahan reports on crime and social issues affecting regional and remote Australia in her role as national crime reporter at Australian Community Media (ACM). She was ACM’s Trainee of the Year in 2023 and, aside from reporting on crime, has travelled the country as a journalist for Explore Travel Magazine. Reach out with news or updates to [email protected]
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