Does AI Stand For "Artificial Indoctrination"?

Deep fakes have become a feature of the online world

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You may have noticed that, when you call a customer service or tech support number, more often than not, the voice you hear is not a recorded human but an AI-generated simulacrum. Or, you may be watching a YouTube video with a spoken script and realize that the narrator’s voice is digital, not a recorded human. The giveaway might be a mispronunciation of a word or an awkward cadence. Artificial intelligence technology has advanced to the point that these voices sound so human-like that, for example, they are replacing voice actors in content-creation fields such as movies, advertising, and education. Simple text-to-speech (TTS) has been with us for some time, but because of its ability to analyze and process huge amounts of data, AI provides a much more realistic translation of digital text to audible speech.

Like most disruptive technologies¹, AI has the power to do much good, but can also do evil. This is especially true as AI is applied to video. An article on the California Learning Resource Network website provides a synopsis of the history and evolution of this technology into the video realm:

Artificial Intelligence (AI) video encompasses a range of techniques and applications leveraging machine learning (ML), deep learning (DL), and computer vision (CV) to analyze, generate, manipulate, and enhance video content.

Imitating or creating a human-sounding voice is child’s play for AI compared to its facility at creating or manipulating video. In a world where so much of daily life involves viewing the world on two-dimensional screens- phones, computers, TVs- the ability to create videos that seemingly portray real people confers enormous power to those who control mass media outlets. I am not referring to fictional works like movies or streaming videos. Instead, think of advertising and news. In the final analysis, the power to dispense information is also the power to dispense disinformation.

Welcome to Deep Fakes, manufactured video designed to deceive.

Some of you may know who George Conway is: an attorney, former Republican, vociferous critic of Donald Trump, and currently a Democratic candidate for Congress in New York City. For the last six years, he has frequently appeared on news channels such as CNN and MSNBC, and on a number of podcasts, including The Bulwark. Last week, this video featuring him appeared on YouTube:

None of this is true. The events described by “George Conway” never happened. In fact, that is not George Conway. If you do not believe me, check the news from last week. Can you find this story anywhere?

It is a Deep Fake.

The video below also appeared on YouTube last week. It does flash a warning that the video contains “Altered or synthetic content”, but it’s easy to miss. And, as in the Conway video, the events described never happened.

It is not a stretch to see how problematic this technology can be. It opens the way for a new age of propaganda, an Orwellian mediascape where the lines between truth and fiction are not blurred, but completely obliterated. We are moving beyond what Kellyanne Conway (George’s ex-wife) once called “alternate facts” into a world of influencers and conspiracy theorists whose primary mission is not truth-seeking, but sowing divisiveness and tribalism. Worse yet, AI technologies can be weaponized by aspiring autocrats to numb and confuse populations. High-tech propaganda is a frontal assault on the values of the Enlightenment, values that have guided democratic societies for two-and-a-half centuries. The Age of Reason is giving way to the Age of BS.

If you think I’m blowing smoke, do an online search for “recent deep fakes”. The various media and social media platforms are increasingly hard-pressed to weed out the growing number of these counterfeits. It will be up to us to deal with them individually. Pragmatic skepticism is the key to critical thinking and making informed choices. Check sources, do not rely on any single one, and keep in mind there is a difference between principles and ideology.

And remember, seeing is not always believing.

PS: If you find other examples of Deep Fakes, please include them in a reply below.

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1. The term disruptive technology (or innovation) refers to technological developments that displace other technologies in the marketplace. An example would be the telephone supplanting the telegraph, or radio’s position as the dominant mass medium being taken by television. Sustaining innovation refers to improvements to existing technologies in established markets. Incumbent businesses often view disruptive technologies as a threat. You can find a historical context for the tensions between these forces in Tim Wu’s 2012 book, The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires.