The dangers of deepfakes

The dangers of deepfakes go beyond just fooling some people. If others act on what they see in deepfakes, there are huge dangers to reputation, politics, and even economics. Imagine if a large number of people were convinced by a deepfake of a declaration of war. There could be pandemonium and huge amounts of damage to international reputation before the truth was revealed. This very nearly happened recently: a deepfake of President Zelenskyy of Ukraine was spread online telling the Ukranian people to lay down arms during the Russian invasion.

Reputation

In some ways, danger to reputation sounds like the most trivial of potential dangers from deepfakes. However, reputation can be incredibly important for all kinds of things. Imagine if a person were to lose their job over a deepfake insulting their boss, or another person getting arrested when a deepfake falsely confessing to a crime is sent to the police. These effects can compound and seriously impair...