Rapid technological advancement is changing the way that political parties, voters, and media platforms engage with each other. This along with cultural change has led to an emerging era of disinformation and misinformation driven by both domestic and foreign actors. Political deepfakes, videos created through the use of artificial intelligence, allow individuals to rapidly create fake videos indistinguishable from true content. These videos have the capacity to undermine voter trust and could alter electoral outcomes. Regulating disinformation however raises significant free speech concerns, as well as questions about where liability should fall. In particular, holding large technology and media platforms accountable for content could lead to unintended chilling effects around freedom of expression, harming rather than protecting democratic institutions. Proposed regulations should therefore be carefully analysed through the framework of the implied freedom of political communication, ensuring that any new laws are proportionate and tailored to the threat they seek to prevent. This article analyses how current Australian law interacts with political deepfakes and proposes two targeted amendments to our federal electoral regulations to reduce the threat they pose to elections.
The Evolution of Deepfakes
Deepfakes first entered the public lexicon a few years ago, but the underlying technology has evolved from decades of research in AI and computer graphics. Initially, deep learning techniques were applied primarily in benign contexts, such as improving visual effects in films and enabling real-time translation services. However, as these technologies became more sophisticated and user-friendly, their potential for misuse became apparent.
The term ‘deepfake’ itself is a portmanteau of ‘deep learning’ and ‘fake’, which succinctly captures the essence of these creations—synthetic media generated by neural networks, a key component of AI. The first widely acknowledged use of deepfake technology emerged on the internet in late 2017, when a user on Reddit demonstrated the capability to swap celebrities’ faces into videos. This initial display, although crude, marked a pivotal moment in the understanding of how AI could be manipulated for creating hyper-realistic fake videos.
This editorial is based on “Deepfakes in elections: They have shaken our faith in our own judgment which was published in Indian Express on 14/05/2024. The article discusses the introduction of deep fakes in our ongoing election cycle and its associated threat to the fair election process, the challenges of deep fakes in verifying various authentic information and our own judgment.
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