Examining Deepfake Ethics and Dangers

Deepfakes have a reputation for being extremely dangerous and of questionable ethics. While any technology can be abused, it is the usage itself that is unethical, not the technology itself. This applies to deepfakes as well. As long as the usage is ethical, deepfakes can be an ethical technology. However, there are still potential threats from deepfakes. The technology is available publicly – anyone can make a deepfake, even those with unethical intentions. The best way to limit the danger of deepfakes may well be to make sure that everyone knows about them, effectively inoculating the public against trusting a video just because they have watched it.

In this chapter, we will cover the ethics and dangers of deepfakes. We will examine the ethics of deepfake’s origins, create some guidelines to follow in creating ethical deepfakes, discuss the dangers of deepfakes, and cover some of the defenses against deepfakes.

We’ll...