# SeeABLE: Soft Discrepancies and Bounded Contrastive Learning for Exposing Deepfakes

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2211.11296 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.11296/

## Key facts

- Cited by 49 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 62 of its 83 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 21 Nov 2022.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 62)

- [Deep Residual Learning for Image Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1512.03385/) (2015)
- [Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.11239/) (2020)
- [High-Resolution Image Synthesis with Latent Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.10752/) (2021)
- [A Simple Framework for Contrastive Learning of Visual Representations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.05709/) (2020)
- [EfficientNet: Rethinking Model Scaling for Convolutional Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.11946/) (2019)
- [A Style-Based Generator Architecture for Generative Adversarial Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.04948/) (2018)
- [Generative Adversarial Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.00667/) (2022)
- [Progressive Growing of GANs for Improved Quality, Stability, and Variation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1710.10196/) (2017)
- [Supervised Contrastive Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.11362/) (2020)
- [Xception: Deep Learning with Depthwise Separable Convolutions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1610.02357/) (2016)
- [Density estimation using Real NVP](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1605.08803/) (2016)
- [Sharpness-Aware Minimization for Efficiently Improving Generalization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.01412/) (2020)
- [Diffusion Models: A Comprehensive Survey of Methods and Applications](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.00796/) (2022)
- [FaceForensics++: Learning to Detect Manipulated Facial Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1901.08971/) (2019)
- [Diffusion Models in Vision: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.04747/) (2022)
- [Face2Face: Real-time Face Capture and Reenactment of RGB Videos](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.14808/) (2020)
- [Celeb-DF: A Large-scale Challenging Dataset for DeepFake Forensics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1909.12962/) (2019)
- [CutPaste: Self-Supervised Learning for Anomaly Detection and Localization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.04015/) (2021)
- [Thinking in Frequency: Face Forgery Detection by Mining Frequency-aware Clues](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.09355/) (2020)
- [Using Self-Supervised Learning Can Improve Model Robustness and Uncertainty](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1906.12340/) (2019)
- [Face X-ray for More General Face Forgery Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.13458/) (2019)
- [CSI: Novelty Detection via Contrastive Learning on Distributionally Shifted Instances](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.08176/) (2020)
- [GANomaly: Semi-Supervised Anomaly Detection via Adversarial Training](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1805.06725/) (2018)
- [MesoNet: a Compact Facial Video Forgery Detection Network](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1809.00888/) (2018)
- [Understanding the Behaviour of Contrastive Loss](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.09740/) (2020)
- [Detecting Deepfakes with Self-Blended Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.08376/) (2022)
- [Exposing DeepFake Videos By Detecting Face Warping Artifacts](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1811.00656/) (2018)
- [Exposing Deep Fakes Using Inconsistent Head Poses](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1811.00661/) (2018)
- [Lips Don't Lie: A Generalisable and Robust Approach to Face Forgery Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.07657/) (2020)
- [On the Detection of Digital Face Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1910.01717/) (2019)

## Built on by (most cited first, 30 of 49)

- [Orthogonal Subspace Decomposition for Generalizable AI-Generated Image Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.15633/) (2024)
- [Generalizing Deepfake Video Detection with Plug-and-Play: Video-Level Blending and Spatiotemporal Adapter Tuning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.17065/) (2024)
- [Towards General Visual-Linguistic Face Forgery Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.16545/) (2023)
- [Rethinking Vision-Language Model in Face Forensics: Multi-Modal Interpretable Forged Face Detector](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.20188/) (2025)
- [X2-DFD: A framework for eXplainable and eXtendable Deepfake Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.06126/) (2024)
- [Fake It till You Make It: Curricular Dynamic Forgery Augmentations towards General Deepfake Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.14444/) (2024)
- [Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: Reprogramming Visual-Language Model for General Deepfake Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.02664/) (2024)
- [DiffusionFake: Enhancing Generalization in Deepfake Detection via Guided Stable Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.04372/) (2024)
- [Exploring Unbiased Deepfake Detection via Token-Level Shuffling and Mixing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.04376/) (2025)
- [FSFM: A Generalizable Face Security Foundation Model via Self-Supervised Facial Representation Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.12032/) (2024)
- [From Specificity to Generality: Revisiting Generalizable Artifacts in Detecting Face Deepfakes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.04827/) (2025)
- [FreqDebias: Towards Generalizable Deepfake Detection via Consistency-Driven Frequency Debiasing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.22412/) (2025)
- [Deepfake Media Generation and Detection in the Generative AI Era: A Survey and Outlook](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.19537/) (2024)
- [Memory-efficient Continual Learning with Neural Collapse Contrastive](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.02865/) (2024)
- [SelfMAD: Enhancing Generalization and Robustness in Morphing Attack Detection via Self-Supervised Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.05504/) (2025)
- [DeepShield: Fortifying Deepfake Video Detection with Local and Global Forgery Analysis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.25237/) (2025)
- [Evolving from Single-modal to Multi-modal Facial Deepfake Detection: Progress and Challenges](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.06965/) (2024)
- [Robust Deepfake Detection, NTIRE 2026 Challenge: Report](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.24163/) (2026)
- [A Quality-Centric Framework for Generic Deepfake Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.05335/) (2024)
- [Practical Manipulation Model for Robust Deepfake Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.05119/) (2025)
- [AuViRe: Audio-visual Speech Representation Reconstruction for Deepfake Temporal Localization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.18993/) (2025)
- [UniForensics: Face Forgery Detection via General Facial Representation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.19079/) (2024)
- [WMamba: Wavelet-based Mamba for Face Forgery Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.09617/) (2025)
- [DevFD: Developmental Face Forgery Detection by Learning Shared and Orthogonal LoRA Subspaces](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.19230/) (2025)
- [Data-Agnostic Face Image Synthesis Detection Using Bayesian CNNs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.04241/) (2024)
- [DiffFake: Exposing Deepfakes using Differential Anomaly Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.16247/) (2025)
- [VRAG-DFD: Verifiable Retrieval-Augmentation for MLLM-based Deepfake Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.13660/) (2026)
- [Forensics Adapter: Unleashing CLIP for Generalizable Face Forgery Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.19715/) (2024)
- [Exploring Active Data Selection Strategies for Continuous Training in Deepfake Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.07269/) (2025)
- [Unifying Locality of KANs and Feature Drift Compensation Projection for Data-free Replay based Continual Face Forgery Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.03189/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Modern deepfake detectors have achieved encouraging results, when training and test images are drawn from the same data collection. However, when these detectors are applied to images produced with unknown deepfake-generation techniques, considerable performance degradations are commonly observed. In this paper, we propose a novel deepfake detector, called SeeABLE, that formalizes the detection problem as a (one-class) out-of-distribution detection task and generalizes better to unseen deepfakes. Specifically, SeeABLE first generates local image perturbations (referred to as soft-discrepancies) and then pushes the perturbed faces towards predefined prototypes using a novel regression-based bounded contrastive loss. To strengthen the generalization performance of SeeABLE to unknown deepfake types, we generate a rich set of soft discrepancies and train the detector: (i) to localize, which part of the face was modified, and (ii) to identify the alteration type. To demonstrate the capabilities of SeeABLE, we perform rigorous experiments on several widely-used deepfake datasets and show that our model convincingly outperforms competing state-of-the-art detectors, while exhibiting highly encouraging generalization capabilities.