Keep Your Paws Off My Picture!

Between AI frenzy and loss of control: How deepfakes emerge

Deepfakes are deceptively real-seeming images or videos that have been faked using artificial intelligence (AI). With the help of apps, users can easily manipulate images, voices, videos or faces. Some famous examples depict politicians like Barack Obama or Angela Merkel seemingly in action. If fakes like this go viral online, they can massively damage the reputations of politicians or other prominent figures—and with them, our trust in democracy and the media. But because it is very easy nowadays to create deepfakes—including with special apps—every one of us could ultimately be affected.

Of course, deepfakes also have their positive sides: they can enhance the production of impressive cinematic films, vividly communicate historical knowledge, or be a private source of entertainment if you want to imagine yourself as a movie star. On the other hand, the widespread distribution of fake nudes is highly problematic and inhuman. These are AI-generated nude images and videos—almost exclusively depicting women—that circulate on the internet without the victims’ consent. Such experiences of digital abuse often follow the people affected for the rest of their lives.

And while today it is becoming easier and easier to produce deepfakes, it is simultaneously becoming increasingly difficult to recognize them and remove them. This presents new challenges for society, internet platforms and all of us.