Democracy is easy
It’s like stealing ice cream from a baby
I genuinely love the process of manipulating people online for money
We just want to predict your future behaviours
These videos are all deepfakes
Synthesised content created using artificial intelligence
Fake, fake, disgusting news
Deepfakes will make for even more complicated arguments...
...about what is fake news and what is real
And if seeing is no longer believing...
...the very real question is...
...could deepfakes weaken democracy?
Democracy just doesn’t work if people don’t believe in it
So the deepfake artworks used artificial intelligence...
...and machine-learning technologies to kind of hack...
...the bodies if you like, of famous celebrity influencers
Bill Posters is the artist behind these deepfake videos...
...known as the Spectre Project
Spectre is almost too powerful to comprehend
Two of the main questions we wanted to explore...
...with the Spectre Project is what does it feel like when...
...our personal data is used in unexpected ways...
...by powerful tech companies and how as a result can...
...that change our understandings of today
To test Facebook’s response, Bill posted the deepfake videos on Instagram...
...a social-media platform owned by Facebook
The company downgraded the videos’ visibility
Spectre showed me how to manipulate you into sharing intimate data...
...about yourself and all those you love for free
But that didn’t stop this fake clip of Facebook boss...
...Mark Zuckerberg, going viral
That showed the potential...
...for spreading disinformation online through deepfakes
A danger that’s likely to increase...
...as long as tech companies and politicians remain unsure how to deal with it
The power of deepfakes is an area of great concern...
...whilst these technologies exist in what is essentially...
...a regulatory black hole
Image manipulation is already exploited by autocratic regimes
It’s a dark art that goes back to Joseph Stalin...
...who made his enemies disappear
AI today is capable of making deepfake videos like this...
...where comedian Bill Hader morphs into Tom Cruise
As the technology advances...
...the danger is that deepfakes will be used...
...to mislead voters in democratic countries
If you take away those tools that enable us to...
...be able to sort out what’s real from what’s not...
...you make very poor decisions
Aviv Ovadya is the founder of Thoughtful Technology Project
He worries about another problem...
...that deepfakes could be used as an excuse...
...to help politicians escape scrutiny
You have the corrupt politician being able to say...
...“oh yeah that video of me—that was fake”
That brings us into a world where people won’t know what they can trust
He believes the ultimate threat from deepfakes could be that...
...more and more people opt out of democratic politics
A phenomenon he calls “reality apathy”
Reality apathy is when it’s so hard to make sense of what’s happening
People just sort of give up
Democracy just doesn’t work if people don’t believe in it
So what can be done to fight back?
A group of scientists at Cambridge University are having a go
They have developed a computer game...
...to teach people how to spot disinformation
So in the game people essentially step into the shoes...
...of a fake news producer...
...and you build your way up to a fake news empire...
...by spreading fake content online
Dr Sander van der Linden, the game’s designer...
...believes it will help people to distinguish fact from fiction
So your goal is to get as many followers as possible...
...while maintaining your online credibility
So you can’t be too ridiculous
And the first badge in the game...
...is about impersonating other people online
And of course one example that we’ve talked about is deepfakes
So in the game we test people before and after...
...and at the beginning we found that people are duped...
...by a lot of these techniques but once they played the game...
...they’ve become resistant and are able to identify them later on
Dr van der Linden’s team have drawn inspiration...
...from preventative medicine in their hunt to cure fake news
So just as you inject someone with a severely weakened dose...
...of a virus to trigger antibodies in the immune system...
...you can do the same with information
People can essentially create mental antibodies...
...and become immune against fake news
And essentially everyone is their own bullshit detector
Today I’m president, not because I’m the greatest...
...though probably I am
Deepfake technology means that faking videos...
...is becoming as easy as faking words and photos
Until people learn to look at video with a more critical eye...
...there’s a danger that deepfakes could be used to undermine democracy