The technological advancement that has fueled media creation today, has also provided opportunities for all people, regardless of their demography, ethnicity, religion, etc. It can give people a voice, purpose, and the ability to make an impact at scale and with speed. But as we have seen recently with the rise of deep fakes - the events can be weaponized with negative intent. Augmented reality is still in its infancy stage and it isn't yet built to prepare for dealing with artificial intelligence or deep fakes.
New Front of Warfare: Deep Fake technology is now in the hands of every individual. The danger it poses to society has never been greater. Deep Fake facilitates a new front of warfare that is stealthy, insidious, and potentially more destructive and destabilizing than any before it.
Targeting Women: Deepfakes are a danger to society because they can be used in many different ways. They can be used to coerce individuals into doing things they don't want to do, could inflict physical and emotional harm on both men and women. The deepfake phenomenon revolves around the use of artificial intelligence to produce videos that show people doing or saying things that they never actually did or said.
Damage to Personal Reputation: Deep fake can include deepfake images that damage the person's reputation. As artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms advance, an image, video, or audio clip of a person indulging in antisocial activities and saying vile things can be made easily. These have serious implications on the property and life of the victim.
Undermining Democracy: A deepfake can also aid in altering the democratic discourse and undermine trust in institutions and impair diplomacy.
Disrupting Electioneering: A deepfake of a political candidate can sabotage their image and reputation. A well-executed one, a few days before polling, of a political candidate spewing out racial epithets or indulging in an unethical act can damage their campaign.
Crime: A deepfake video can be made to implicate a crime on an individual. It is easy to edit a video such that it appears to be a death scene or accident involving the individual. An innocent person may be framed for sexual harassment, rape, murder etc.
Enhancing Media Literacy: The Media Literacy Project encourages mainstream newsrooms and the technology industry to develop new technologies, applications, and platforms that address deepfakes head-on. It is essential that this effort be undertaken at an early stage of development so as to avoid having to rely on some later bottleneck-developing solution whose by then-unknown characteristics might prove less than desirable.
Behavioural Change: On the part of society, to counter the menace of deep fakes, there is a need to take the responsibility to be a critical consumer of media on the Internet, think and pause before sharing on social media, and be part of the solution to this infodemic.
Need for Regulation: We need to make sure deep fakes are properly regulated via a cocktail of traditional laws and rules alongside technological solutions, in order to effectively tackle the problem and mitigate any fallout from such technology. These solutions could include some basic rules about how deep fakes should be categorized and that the actors, creators must act in accordance with set "rules of conduct" when using this technology. By acting like this, we can open up the discussion on whether or not there is a need for regulation, with a collaborative discussion between all parties involved.
Technological Interventions: These technological interventions can prevent the dissemination of deep fakes and support fact-checking efforts by intelligently detecting and obfuscating deep fake objects, analyzing large volumes of data for fake trends, and supporting the authentication of news stories. This can create a more level playing field for those fighting for the truth.
