[not-my-account]

The best solution I can think of would be to start mass producing audio deepfakes of politicians that are clearly ridiculous, to the point where people know that it’s fake. Flood the market with that, and people’s trust will degrade, and therefore the nefarious deepfakes will be taken less seriously.

[mvdtnz]

I keep seeing this fantasy on this website that people exposed to many deepfakes will suddenly become diligent skeptics and learn to seek out original sources. More likely people will seek out and believe the deepfakes which confirm their preconceived biases while railing against any soundbite that doesn't fit their narrative - real or fake - as a deepfake.

[jjoonathan]

Danger.

Yes, it degrades trust, but no, this does not result in enlightenment. It results in a depoliticized populace that let the rulers get away with almost anything. See: Russia. Domestic Russian propaganda isn't designed to be believable, it's designed to make people lose trust in everything and cynically withdraw from politics, turning democracy into dictatorship.

See also: terrorism. It does not "shake society awake," it sends society running towards the nearest strong-man archetype that promises safety, which is the exact opposite of "awake."

[fhdkweig]

Trey Parker and Matt Stone (of South Park fame) made a youtube channel for Sassy Justice at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_jrebvmPlk and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WfZuNceFDM . And the Queen of England at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvY-Abd2FfM

[randomdata]

That would mean even more ringing in voters' ears (i.e. getting more phone calls). Which doesn't solve the problem – it makes it worse.

[RandallBrown]

Sorry for some mild spoilers, but this is a plot point in Neal Stephenson's latest novel Termination Shock.

[jameshart]

Also Fall, to a more extreme extent. In fact it’s kind of been a theme he hinted at in several of his more cyberpunkish novels - going back to Snow Crash, and even shows up in Anathem - he’s often sort of gestured at usable networks having to be built on top of a substrate of bot-generated untrustable falsehood and lies. The cyber network almost needs the noise as some sort of fuel.

In Fall he talks more about how that kind of layered infosphere arises - and he’s not optimistic about it. The ‘flood the zone with the worst possible bot generated trash’ defense is applied directly on behalf of Maeve in Fall as a response against the post-truth impossibility of publishing the truth in the face of conspiracy narratives. It doesn’t work. The bots - and others like them - destroy the value of the internet as we know it. Everyone retreats to AI-mediated (‘edited’) information bubbles.

I think it’s sort of the current that runs through most Stephenson futurism.

[ceejayoz]

I'm kinda shocked politicians haven't started doing this themselves.

[AlotOfReading]

That's a dangerous game. There is nothing a fake could say, no matter how ridiculous, that wouldn't convince somebody that the real person said it. Maybe they believe the politician already kicks puppies, maybe they hear what they think is a "reasonable" (yet still wrong) interpretation instead, or maybe they're just stupid. Doesn't matter, because now they're going to play telephone with their friends and family about the stupid thing the politician didn't actually say.

Even if it works, what's the upside? Now your brand is associated with negativity and people are thinking "maybe they didn't say that, but why take the risk? X is a safer bet".

[lcnPylGDnU4H9OF]

Probably something for domestic intelligence agencies to do with their local politicians. It does seem like a reasonable defense. Release the ridiculous deepfake covertly so it's assumed to have been done by some rando for the lulz and then release a statement a few days later talking about the dangers in a world occupied by deepfakes.

It's kinda got me curious: what recording would be so obviously fake?

[mksybr]

Bhutanese shadow garden grown dark evil pack

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4hR3NQmCZU

[sebzim4500]

Wait, that wasn't real?

[sterlind]

I've seen a flood of voice cloning shit-posts, e.g. Trump, Biden and Obama at Six Flags, or all those remixes of The Missile Knows meme. The existence of audio deepfakes is well-known among Gen Z, at least, but perhaps less to older generations who aren't so online.