Enhancing Deepfake Detection Through Quantum Transfer Learning and Class-Attention Vision Transformer Architecture

The widespread use of the internet, coupled with the increasing production of digital content, has caused significant challenges in information security and manipulation. Deepfake detection has become a critical research topic in both academic and practical domains, as it involves identifying forged elements in artificially generated videos using various deep learning and artificial intelligence techniques. In this dissertation, an innovative model was developed for detecting deepfake videos by combining the Quantum Transfer Learning (QTL) and Class-Attention Vision Transformer (CaiT) architectures. The Deepfake Detection Challenge (DFDC) dataset was used for training, and a system capable of detecting spatiotemporal inconsistencies was constructed by integrating QTL and CaiT technologies. In addition to existing preprocessing methods in the literature, a novel preprocessing function tailored to the requirements of deep learning models was developed for the dataset. The advantages of quantum computing offered by QTL were merged with the global feature extraction capabilities of the CaiT. The results demonstrated that the proposed method achieved a remarkable performance in detecting deepfake videos, with an accuracy of 90% and ROC AUC score of 0.94 achieved. The model’s performance was compared with other methods evaluated on the DFDC dataset, highlighting its efficiency in resource utilization and overall effectiveness. The findings reveal that the proposed QTL-CaiT-based system provides a strong foundation for deepfake detection and contributes significantly to the academic literature. Future research should focus on testing the model on real quantum devices and applying it to larger datasets to further enhance its applicability.