Deepfakes, Yawn or Yikes?: Grounding AI-fears in global threats and solution prioritization

Deepfakes: AI-enhanced technologies that make it easier to manipulate or fake real peoples' voices, faces and actions as well as dismiss any real video or audio as fake. They have become a critical concern for celebrities, and for many ordinary women worldwide, and raise mis/disinformation threats as they become easier to deploy. They have also been an example of pre-emptive and often misdirected technology hype - focusing on hypothetical political scenarios, rather than real use cases against women and uses in satire and malicious content gaslighting as satire. WITNESS has led the first global workshops to assess and prioritize threats and solutions ​http://wit.to/Synthetic-Media-Deepfakes​ and ensure they are not Silicon Valley, Brussels or DC-driven as well as prioritize contextualized questions of access and equity in solutions. We’ll discuss these learnings and what to do next as deepfakes progress and ‘improve’.