Wait, the President Said What?

From porn to propaganda, artificial intelligence is making it harder to distinguish between the real and unreal

By Vonetta Logan

Imagine you’re an acclaimed author of sultry adult contemporary romance novels. Your latest book sits freshly packaged on your editor’s desk, and all you need now is a brilliant cover to bring in the hoards of housewives yearning for your salacious prose.

You could put out a casting notice for a 6-foot-4 heavily muscled, heavily tattooed, bearded man with a giant … heart, or you could literally design the man of your dreams with just a few clicks of a mouse.

AI-generated synthetic media or deepfakes is a rapidly expanding technology that both excites and terrifies. Because this is the AI issue of Luckbox, we’re going take a deep dive into deepfakes. In a world where you already have a hard time believing everything you see and hear online, are deepfakes the pathway to innovation or our annihilation?

The trajectory of advances in AI technology looks like a hockey stick. Raise your hand if AI has threatened your job. **raises hand** AI can now write stories (good luck trying to capture my sassy voice, robots), create art, edit movies, represent you in court and, of course, try to overthrow your government. Um, what?

“‘Deepfake’ technology, which has progressed steadily for nearly a decade, has the capability to create talking digital puppets,” according to a New York Times article by Adam Satariano and Paul Mozur.

You’ve probably seen irreverent TikTok videos of deeptomcruise doing magic tricks, rapper Kendrick Lamar shapeshifting into other musical artists or Barack Obama calling Donald Trump a “total and complete dipshit.”

These are all examples of deepfakes—a form of artificial intelligence which uses “deep learning” to manipulate audio, images and video to create hyperrealistic content. While most videos are good for a laugh, there’s something more insidious beneath the surface.

Photo: Getty Images

AI is heading into a space that’s pretty messy.

Bad actors can use AI software to distort public figures—like the video that circulated on social media last year falsely showing Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, announcing a surrender to Russia.

“AI software, which can easily be purchased online, can create videos in a matter of minutes, and subscriptions start at just a few dollars a month,” says Jack Stubbs, vice president of intelligence at Graphika, a research firm that studies disinformation.

While that might sound great for my burgeoning desire to produce very specific Dwayne Johnson fan fiction, it raises concerns about using the technology to create political unrest and disinformation campaigns. So, let’s dive into all the ways deepfakin’ it until you make it can go wrong.

Literal fake news

Two news anchors appear on screen. They delve into the news of the day, praising China’s role in geopolitical relations and chastising the United States for a lack of synchronized marching drills. But something doesn’t seem right.

“Their voices were stilted and failed to sync, their faces were pixelated and their hair appeared unnaturally plastered to the head,” the Satariano and Mozur article says. “The two broadcasters are not real people. Videos of them were distributed by pro-China bot accounts on Facebook and Twitter, in the first instance of ‘deepfake’ video technology being used to create fictitious people as part of a state-aligned information campaign.”

And while the technology for creating cheap and fast deepfakes is abundant, we’re lucky that it’s not very good and there are “tells” that give it away. But the technology is evolving and so are the risks.

You’re hired! Who are you?

More than half of all U.S. employees hired since the early days of the pandemic have never met any of their coworkers in person, according to a survey by Green Building Elements.

That can lead to problems.

In July 2022, the FBI issued a warning that some applicants for tech positions were using stolen identities and even deepfake videos to land jobs in remote interviews. It occurs most often with positions in software development, database creation and other software-related jobs, the bureau says.

“In May, the U.S. State and Treasury departments and the FBI released a joint statement warning that American companies were hiring North Korean IT workers,” writes Mike Elgan for Computerworld

Can you imagine that Zoom meeting? “Hey, Chad, welcome to the developer meeting. Why is your background the Supreme Leader?”

This is a new problem because “in the past, deepfakes were less sophisticated, and all-remote job interviews were rare,” Elgan says. “But in this post-COVID-19 world, remote interviews have become mainstream, and deepfakes continue to improve.”

The “adult situation”

What if I told you many of today’s advances in technology began in the porn industry? Just pick up a copy of The Erotic Engine: How Pornography has Powered Mass Communication from Gutenberg to Google by Patchen Barss. It’s a fascinating read.

Apparently, people have wanted to read smut ever since the printing press was invented. The internet needed content to keep people clicking, camera and video technology needed more than BetaMax and Super 8, we needed ways to pay for things online, and we needed faster broadband to download all the naughty pics. All of these tech advancements have roots in Captain Stabbin’.

So, if AI deepfake technology can turn a comedian into Tom Cruise, then it can also turn anyone into an unwitting porn star.

A popular Twitch streamer named QTCinderella went live on the platform to tearfully document the pain and the humiliation she felt when she discovered her likeness was featured in videos on a deepfake porn site.

“This is what it looks like to feel violated,” she says. “This is what it looks like to feel taken advantage of, this is what it looks like to see yourself naked against your will being spread all over the internet. This is what it looks like.”

People have been making fake porn of celebrities for a long time, but nowadays the cost and the tech’s ease of use can make it an option for a vengeful ex or just a garden variety creeper. Federal revenge porn law enables victims of non-consensual pornography to sue the perpetrators, but it doesn’t address deepfakes specifically.

Is there a good side?

Well, this column has been thoroughly dystopian and depressing. Do deepfakes offer any benefits? Blessedly, yes!

“In April last year, a health charity partnered with David Beckham to produce a video and voice campaign to help end malaria,” writes Ashish Jaiman on Medium . “In the ‘Malaria No More’ campaign, Beckham spoke nine languages seamlessly for Public Appeal. The social campaign was a great example of using deepfakes to broaden the reach of a public message.”

Deepfakes can also be used in education. In one example, a deepfake JFK can come to life, explaining the need for ending the Cold War.

And while fake reporters are used as agents of state-sponsored misinformation, the inverse is also true. What if journalists in sensitive situations or hostile environments could use a “digital avatar” to report accurate information without disclosing their actual voice or identity?

But danger abounds, notes Tim Stevens, King’s College London’s Cyber Security Research Group director. “What kind of society do we want?” he asks. “What do we want the use of AI to look like? Because at the moment the brakes are off and we’re heading into a space that’s pretty messy.”

As society navigates the changing role of AI in daily life, let’s embrace the good and work collectively to mitigate the bad. If you see a video featuring me and the entire roster of the LA Lakers, it’s probably fake.

Vonetta Logan, a writer and comedian, appears daily on the tastylive network. @vonettalogan