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US Lawmakers Say AI Deepfakes 'Have the Potential To Disrupt Every Facet of Our Society' (theverge.com)

Yesterday, several lawmakers sent a letter to the Director of National Intelligence, Dan Coats, asking him to assess the threat posed to national security by deepfakes -- a new type of AI-assisted video editing that creates realistic results with minimal effort. The Verge reports: The letter says "hyper-realistic digital forgeries" showing "convincing depictions of individuals doing or saying things they never did" could be used for blackmail and misinformation. "As deep fake technology becomes more advanced and more accessible, it could pose a threat to United States public discourse and national security," say the letter's signatories, House representatives Adam Schiff (D-CA), Stephanie Murphy (D-FL), and Carlos Curbelo (R-FL). The trio want the intelligence community to produce a report that includes descriptions of when "confirmed or suspected" deepfakes have been produced by foreign individuals (there are no current examples of this), and to suggest potential countermeasures. In a press statement, Curbelo said: "Deep fakes have the potential to disrupt every facet of our society and trigger dangerous international and domestic consequences [...] As with any threat, our Intelligence Community must be prepared to combat deep fakes, be vigilant against them, and stand ready to protect our nation and the American people."

10 of 198 comments (clear)

  1. Re:TRUMP by Mal-2 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This Congress? Nothing except verbally distance themselves from him (if they even do that) while lining their pockets with his policies. The next Congress though -- that's a whole different matter.

    --
    How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
  2. They're lying (They're politicians) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    They're obviously lying. Politicians are gonna love the proliferation of deepfakes. That way, the next time they say something stupid in an interview, they can say the clip is a deepfake. They're just starting to blame them as an upcoming problem now so they can start using it as an excuse ASAP.

  3. Same as it ever was by Tablizer · · Score: 5, Informative

    Photos use to be considered "strong evidence", then Photoshop etc. came along to make doctoring cheap and common, and people stopped trusting photos. The same will happen to audio and video once they see enough fudged examples.

  4. Heinlein's "Fair Witness" by steveha · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Robert A. Heinlein imagined this problem, and in his novel Stranger in a Strange Land he described a new profession: "Fair Witness"

    A Fair Witness is a person who is trained to observe and remember without jumping to any conclusions. A Fair Witness should be able to describe in court what he/she saw, and only that. As an example, a Fair Witness would say something like "I observed a house, and the side I saw appeared white" rather than "I observed a white house." It's possible that other sides of the house, not seen by the Fair Witness, could be a different color; and it's possible the house was repainted after the Fair Witness saw it... the Fair Witness keeps such things in mind.

    Surprisingly, Wikipedia doesn't seem to think that the idea of "Fair Witness" is notable. I Google searched for a reference, and I found a reference that claims to be quoting Wikipedia, but I can't find it on Wikipedia now.

    http://dlkphotography.com/fair-witness/stranger-in-a-strange-land

    I found the "Fair Witness" idea to be one of the most interesting things in the book, and I have long wondered if we would one day see that profession in real life.

    --
    lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
  5. US Lawmakers by nehumanuscrede · · Score: 4, Insightful

    are simply afraid of the competition.

    The US ( and everyone else ) has been altering both modern and historical facts to suit their own agendas since the very beginning.
    I'm curious why the sudden concern :|

    Pot. . . meet kettle.

  6. Re:Docoring photos is as old as photos themselves by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 5, Insightful

    In fact, the entire legal system uses nothing but scientifically invalid "proof"... Our legal system doesn't even remotely adhere to that.

    The threshold for legal conviction in the US (and a few other countries) is "beyond a reasonable doubt" and not "absolute proof" for good reason. If you demand 100% proof, you would almost never convict anyone, and that wouldn't serve justice either. The legal system has to carefully balance the ability to obtain a conviction when warranted versus protection against false accusations. Real life tends to be a bit messier than a peer-reviewed scientific paper, and rarely deals in absolutes.

    --
    Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
  7. They are just pushing for more power by gweihir · · Score: 4, Interesting

    And what gives them power? Laws criminalizing things. There is no way in this universe they can stop this. But they can profit from it and they are certainly trying to.

    --
    Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
  8. when politicians panic... by Kwirl · · Score: 4, Insightful

    its usually because something has come out that they haven't figured out how to manipulate or abuse. when this technology has fallen out of the news, you will know that at least some political bodies are abusing it for their benefit.

  9. No they don't. by thegarbz · · Score: 4, Insightful

    People will currently believe absolutely anything provided you get the narrative right and appeal to their emotions. There's no need to even doctor videos anymore. You just have to tell them.

    1. Re:No they don't. by thegarbz · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Our mainstream media didn't flush anything. As said people will believe absolutely anything. One of those things they are told to believe is that the mainstream media has no credibility, and they are told this by the highest authority of one of the world's most powerful nations.