Ioana Tripa

Are we ruthlessly heading towards a future where we will only believe something we see with our own eyes? Where pictures and videos will mean nothing anymore?

I’ve been listening to “The New Age of Sexism” by Laura Bates. My heart physically ached while hearing Laura describe the abuse involving pornographic deepfakes that targeted 11 to 14-year-old girls in Almendralejo, Spain.

This is just the first (of oh, so many) examples she gives. I was always aware this was, unfortunately, one of the ways deepfakes were always going to be used, but to think of actually targeting minors, it just shook me to my core. And to hear the visceral reaction, pain, and shame those girls felt, in the voice of a woman who has herself been abused using this technology, makes it even more real.

We always hear about cases of fraud using deepfakes and the potential financial, and even reputational, losses of big companies. But the media somehow always forgets about the “real” people being affected by this use of the technology on a daily basis, whose lives are completely upended and whose sense of self gets stolen in an instant.

And I know, I know this is a difficult topic. I had to pause the chapter and take a break from even thinking about it. But we can’t just bury our heads in the sand, and the least we can do is be aware of the negative uses of generative AI, talk about it, and educate our children and families. And maybe, just maybe, we might be able to influence the really big players to implement some changes and protection.