Deepfakes and Artificial Intelligence

As technology has advanced, a new front in the fight against fake news has emerged.  Machine learning algorithms and artificial intelligence (AI) have given rise to so-called “deepfakes.”  Chesney and Citron (2019) described these as “highly realistic and difficult-to-detect digital manipulations of audio or video [in which] it is becoming easier than ever to portray someone saying or doing something he or she never said or did” (para. 1).  For example, using a laptop computer, a person can manipulate a sound bite from President Trump that says he did collude with the Russians.  With the aid of AI software, the face of one subject can be morphed on top of another to create realistic results (Ellis, 2018).  Celebrities, world leaders—anyone, for that matter—can be smeared, seemingly by their own words.  Because celebrities and politicians have a large amount of visual information available online, they could become easy targets (Ellis, 2018).  In his book, Messing with the Enemy: Surviving in a Social Media World of Hackers, Terrorists, Russians, and Fake News, Watts (2018) also discussed this emerging threat.  He said, “Data dominance will enable machine learning to create highly convincing hoaxes, propelling video smears and audio pronouncements” (p. 233).  He also declared, “Machine-learning advancements can be nuclear weapons for information warfare” (p. 232).  Chesney and Citron (2019) added, “As deepfake technology develops and spreads, the current disinformation wars may soon look like the propaganda equivalent of the era of swords and shields” (para. 1).  All of this adds a worrisome and potentially dangerous dimension to the fight against fake news.

To date, most of the deepfake video examples have been created for entertainment purposes.  Comedian Jordan Peele used AI software to create a realistic fake video of Barack Obama, in which Peele ventriloquizes the former U.S. president.  Peele’s creation served as an ironic warning shot about the dangers that deepfakes could pose.  His version of Obama opined, “We’re entering an era in which our enemies can make it look like anyone is saying anything at any point in time” (Romano, 2018).  Still, although AI may make combatting falsehoods online even more complicated, technology may help play a hand in limiting their proliferation.  Facebook and Twitter have vowed to do a better job of stopping fake news on their platforms.  Facebook points to promising AI tools that can help detect fake news (Waugh, 2019).  These tools refer posts to humans who fact-check them.  Twitter also says it is investing in AI technology to try to fight the problem.