#deepfakes

#deepfakes

The Friday video is only the latest jab in a duel that's come to epitomize the subterranean lows American political dialogue has reached. Trump has spent the past decade eroding political norms with a constant stream of name-calling, overstatements, outright lies and all-caps social media posts aimed at whoever crosses his mind. Newsom has recently responded in kind, with his own stream of rants and foul-mouthed social media posts, usually aimed at Trump or one of Trump's followers.

In case it hasn't been obvious enough, The Morning Show makes clear in "The Revolution Will Be Televised" that the dynamic shared between the series and its audience is very much the audience going "this show is insane, what could be more batshit than this?" and The Morning Show going "hold my beer." And then it does something like have the Iranian government go after Alex Levy with deepfakes.

Shortly after his arrest, people started creating bots based on the alleged killer. And last month, eagle-eyed shoppers spied a man modeling a shirt on the website of fast fashion platform Shein who looked an awful lot like Mangione, himself seemingly an AI-generated image. After public outrage and jeers, Shein pulled the AI-generated image from the store and said it was uploaded by a third party vendor.

A whopping 53 percent of just over 5,000 US adults polled in June think that AI will "worsen people's ability to think creatively." Fifty percent say AI will deteriorate our ability to form meaningful relationships, while only five percent believe the reverse. While 29 percent of respondents said they believe AI will make people better problem-solvers, 38 percent said it could worsen our ability to solve problems.

Italy has become the first country in the EU to approve a comprehensive law regulating the use of artificial intelligence, including imposing prison terms on those who use the technology to cause harm, such as generating deepfakes, and limiting child access. Giorgia Meloni's rightwing government said the legislation, which aligns with the EU's landmark AI Act, is a decisive move in influencing how AI is used across Italy.

Amazon is planning to use artificial intelligence to recreate destroyed footage from Orson Welles' 1942 film "The Magnificent Ambersons" - but the late directors' estate is calling bull. In a statement to Variety, a spokesperson for David Reeder, whose Reeder Brand Management handles Welles' estate on behalf of the auteur's daughter Beatrice, said that the family hadn't been informed of the project, which is slated to generate with AI the final 43 minutes of the film.

Vodafone made a commercial starring an AI avatar posing as a real lady. This is interesting because Vodafone is a major global brand and not a fly-by-night TikTok company using a ridiculous deepfake of Jackson Galaxy to sell cat toys. The tells in the commercial are obvious and what one would expect. The AI avatar's hair is a bit off, which ruins the charade that this is a real person.

But it excels at something far more powerful, and potentially sinister-editing existing images to add elements that were never there, in a way that's so seamless and convincing that even experts like myself can't detect the changes. That makes Nano Banana (and its inevitable copycats) both invaluable creative tools and an existential threat to the trustworthiness of photos-both new and historical.

In 2024, a scammer used deepfake audio and video to impersonate Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna and attempted to authorize a wire transfer, reportedly tied to an acquisition. Ferrari never confirmed the amount, which rumors placed in the millions of euros. The scheme failed when an executive assistant stopped it by asking a security question only the real CEO could answer. This isn't sci-fi. Deepfakes have jumped from political misinformation to corporate fraud. Ferrari foiled this one - but other companies haven't been so lucky.

"Remote work and advancements in AI have made it easier than ever for fake candidates to infiltrate the hiring process," said Scott McGuckin, vice president of global talent acquisition at Cisco. "Identifying these threats is our priority, which is why we are adapting our hiring process to include increased verification steps and enhanced background checks that may involve an in-person component.

Last year, Christopher Kohls posted a video in which Kamala Harris seemingly acknowledged being the ultimate diversity hire when Joe Biden chose her as his vice presidential running mate.

AI communication capabilities have evolved, providing vast input and output possibilities beyond simple text interactions. From photos to videos, AI can enhance creativity and communication, while also raising concerns about authenticity.