Deepfakes Have Been Turned Loose

Here's how we fight back

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

As we covered in "Is AI an Opportunity for Writers?" the threat to social stability from AI-generated propaganda/deepfakes is huge. A group of thoughtful critics recently started a deepfakes petition to be sent to lawmakers.  It seeks requirements for AI companies to build-in protections against deepfakes.

This is not about restricting free speech-deepfakes are NON-CONSENSUAL videos/audio.  Deepfakes can easily be used for fraud and intellectual property theft.  Pornography deepfakes-victimizing members of the general public-are already circulating widely.  Bad as those are, what deepfakes can do to elections is potentially catastrophic. 2024 is an election year around the world: 49% of the world’s population is headed to the polls. Deepfakes can grievously harm our collective ability to hold "free and fair elections."

The petition is about protecting ourselves from lies created on anonymously, on an industrial scale, and with no accountability. Lies injected into society like digital Ebola. 

The petition calls for reasonable measures like watermarking AI-generated videos and audio so we know it was AI-created and not real video or audio.  If harmful deepfakes are created because security features were inadequate or non-existent, makers of the AI tools that generated the deepfakes would be held responsible. It is time to shut down techies’ go-to evasion-whether it is an explosion of depression in teens on social media, or algorithm-fueled political partisanship: the tech-CEOs’ looks of feigned innocence and bafflement, followed by the earnest-seeming claim “Oh, how could we know X (in this case, “X” being generating convincing automated lies) could cause so much damage?”  

Recent history is full of new technologies being turned loose with no thought for the safety and security of the public. Deepfakes are a prime example of this.  AI companies will reap the profits, but the social and cultural costs are a "negative externality" as economists like to phrase it: that’s econ-nerd speak for "the rest of society pays the price." 

If this is an issue you are worried about, you can sign the petition. I signed, and I hope you will, too. If you think this is as important as I do, please consider sharing it with friends and family as well.

This is one of the few steps we can take collectively to rein-in deepfakes before they overwhelm us.