It’s March 2023, and former US President Donald Trump has just been indicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records. Almost immediately after the indictment, photos of him being dragged and manhandled by the police went viral on social media. The photos are brutal, horrific, and fake.
According to CNN, the photos were made using AI, and a second look at them would clearly reveal that they were fake. However, the initial impression of the photos was indeed misleading, which resulted in them going viral.
As told by The Washington Post, Trump’s fake arrest photos showcase nothing but the disruptive power of AI. The former US President had just fallen victim to something called deepfakes.
People around the world laughed at this incident, whereas they should’ve been worried about how this technology could be misused. Most importantly, people should stop to think about how deepfakes could become the biggest threat to our digital identities.
What is Deepfake?
Deepfakes are a type of synthetic media. They are digitally manipulated to replace one’s appearance, expressions, and even voice with that of another. Neural networks are commonly used to create deepfakes, mostly through a face-swapping technique.
What is Digital Identity?
Your digital identity includes everything from your online usernames and passwords to your social security number and search history. A detailed study of your digital identity can also expose your digital behavior, like your online shopping patterns, favorite digital content, etc. In short, as defined by AU10TIX, your digital identity is basically a digital representation of your personal information.
To protect your digital identity, several regulations are currently in place across the world. These regulations ensure that your digital identity is safe and not misused in any way. For instance, there’s the European Digital Identity Regulation followed in countries across Europe. Its implementation ensures the security of Europeans’ electronic identification and authentication.
There are many other ways this and other such regulations are put in use. If you want to learn more about it, you can find it here. However, in the age of deepfakes, your digital identity is always at risk, despite the existence of such regulations. Security risks like identity fraud, identity theft, biometric data theft, etc., have all been made possible thanks to deepfakes.
How Deepfakes Threaten Our Digital Identity
Deepfakes threaten our digital identities in a variety of ways. Some of them are discussed below.
Erosion of Trust
Deepfakes jeopardize our trust in the media by making it nearly impossible to discern real from fake. As individuals and institutions fall victim to manipulated content, skepticism grows, casting doubt on the authenticity of any online information.
Identity Manipulation
Digital identity theft takes a dangerous turn with deepfakes. Cybercriminals utilize these tools to impersonate individuals, access personal accounts, and spread false information under others’ names, causing irreparable harm to reputations and relationships. Such manipulation also renders traditional online fraud detection techniques useless.
Spreading Misinformation
The viral nature of deepfakes amplifies the spread of misinformation. Fake speeches or confessions attributed to public figures can incite chaos, affecting financial markets, political landscapes, and public sentiment. Trump’s photos that we talked about earlier are a good example of this.
Privacy Breaches
Deepfakes can fabricate compromising situations, violating privacy boundaries and leading to extortion or blackmail. This exploitation not only harms the individual but also jeopardizes societal norms of consent and respect.
Challenges to Digital Forensics
Detecting deepfakes becomes a cat-and-mouse game as AI technology advances. Traditional methods of digital forensics struggle to keep up with the sophistication of these manipulations, making it difficult to verify authenticity conclusively.
How to Protect Our Digital Identities from Deepfakes
In an era where deepfakes can convincingly manipulate digital identities, safeguarding our online personas is of paramount importance. Cultivating digital literacy is crucial in this regard.
As we hone the ability to discern between genuine content and manipulated material, we can avoid falling prey to the deceptive allure of deepfakes. Staying updated on the latest deepfake techniques and technologies also empowers us to identify potential threats more effectively.
We must also make the most of the latest security features available to us in the digital sphere. This includes embracing multifactor authentication (MFA), which adds an extra layer of defense. MFA requires multiple verification steps, such as passwords, biometrics, or authentication apps, before granting access to online accounts. This ensures that even if a deepfake impersonates someone, unauthorized access remains thwarted.
Fostering a culture of skepticism and adopting privacy-conscious behaviors, like limiting personal data shared online, can also build resilience against digital impersonation.
On top of that, the concerned authorities, including governments, must step in as well. They should ensure that this technology is being used for good purposes, like research and education, not for fraudulent activities. Their oversight can help minimize the negative impact deepfakes have on society.
Conclusion
Bloomberg reports that the global generative AI market is set to reach a value of $1.3 Trillion by 2032. Deepfakes will, of course, play a huge role in this market. However, this high market value will have no meaning if the technology is a threat to our digital identity and presence.
Therefore, while there’s still time, we must act on this issue as discussed above. Technology has the age-old habit of getting out of hand too fast. We can’t let that happen with deepfakes and artificial intelligence in general. If that were to happen, who knows in what other ways humanity would have to suffer.
