"Trump charged, erroneously, that the video was an AI deepfake - Reagan, he claimed, in fact supported tariffs. While these two incidents - the first is AI disinformation, the second is labeling another's video as such - may seem unrelated, they're actually very much linked. This is more than just Trump lying and assuming others lie too. In fact, his dissemination of deepfakes and his accusations of deepfakery work together as parts of the same disinformation strategy."
"The first part of the strategy is the distribution of high volumes of lies and half-truths via campaign speeches, social media, ads, or TV appearances. The second part is the continual labeling of actual news stories from legitimate outlets as "fake news." Recall what Steve Bannon told the writer Michael Lewis in 2018: "The real opposition is the media," the Trump advisor said, adding "And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit," he said."
"AI-generated deepfakes represent a dangerous technology upgrade to that same disinformation playbook. In the Schumer videos, Trump's circle spread the narrative that power-hungry Democrats want to provide healthcare benefits to illegal immigrants. In the case of the Ontario tiff, Trump labeled a credible video as an AI fake. As Trump and his allies create more of their own deepfakes, further sullying the information space, people are more likely to believe that real videos are fake too."
President Donald Trump circulated an AI-generated racist video of Hakeem Jeffries and accused a legitimate Ontario ad featuring Ronald Reagan of being an AI deepfake. Those actions illustrate a two-part disinformation strategy: mass distribution of lies and half-truths through speeches, social media, ads, and TV, paired with repeated labeling of real news as "fake news." Steve Bannon advised flooding media with falsehoods to overwhelm opposition. AI deepfakes amplify that playbook by enabling fabricated audiovisual content and by provoking public skepticism that can cause authentic footage to be dismissed as fake. Growing production of deepfakes increases the risk that real evidence will be doubted.
Read at Fast Company
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