Why Deepfakes Must Die

In 2019, the CEO of a U.K. energy firm mistakenly transferred 220,000 euros to a fraudster. He had received a phone call from his boss asking for the money. The voice of his boss was created through deepfake technology. Deepfakes are extremely concerning from an ethical standpoint. According to Wikipedia, “Deepfakes are synthetic media in which a person in an existing image or video is replaced with someone else's likeness.”  They have gained large attention as a result of their use in celebrity pornography, revenge porn, and fake news, along with hoaxes and financial fraud.  I believe this technology is going through a technological revolution, a term described by James Moor, a researcher in information ethics. Moor references three stages of technological revolution. As deepfakes progress through the stages, it will become impossible to control them. For this reason, I believe that we need to ban deepfake technology before it is too late.   

The first stage is the Introduction, which is often called the intellectual curiosity stage. Deepfakes were started in the scientific research field with the idea of helping to improve deep learning. The problem now, I believe, is in the second stage, called Permeation. The cost of using deepfake technology has radically dropped, and the design of deepfake software has become more standardized. An example of this is the DeepNude software that was introduced and then removed, as a result of pushback.

DeepNude twitter before It was shut down. "The superpower you always wanted"

The final stage that I am concerned we are approaching is the Power Stage, where, as Moor says, “Most people in the culture are affected directly or indirectly by it”. In this case, we must fear the indirect problems caused by deepfakes. As the technology improves, it will be nearly impossible for society to know if a video is real or not. Moor states “As technological revolutions increase their social impact, ethical problems increase”. In an era of disinformation and fake news, deepfake technology will be used especially in the political realm, with dangerous consequences.

A recent example of how a modified video could be believed, is a video of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi which circulated on the web. In the video, she is seen drunkenly slurring her words. An original video of Pelosi speaking had been slowed to make her seem drunk, but the video went viral on Facebook, and many people believed it was real. This shows, as technology becomes better, just how dangerous deepfakes will be in the political arena. Currently, companies are trying to create AIs to detect deepfakevideos, but many experts believe that, as the technology improves, this willbecome an impossible task. So, we face a future where what is real and what is fake may not be known.

The altered video made national news, after going viral on Facebook

Some states have already taken initiatives to ban this technology. Until deepfakes are banned worldwide, though, the technology will continue to strengthen. While deepfakes may have practical benefits for improving deep learning, the ethical ramifications are too large, and the consequences far too great.