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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Technology
Eric Berger

‘They feel true’: political deepfakes are growing in influence – even if people know they aren’t real

Cropped shot of a soldier wearing camouflage fatigues with an american flag for a patch
The amount of political deepfakes has increased dramatically in recent years, according to research from the Governance and Responsible AI Lab. Photograph: PeopleImages/Getty Images

Online content creators are not just building fake images and videos of prominent public figures, they are also fabricating people and using them in military contexts, which can make them money and even serve as effective propaganda, according to artificial intelligence researchers.

Some of these online avatars are sexualized images of women wearing camouflage garb that have generated a significant audience and helped create an idealized image of political figures like Donald Trump, even if the viewer knows the content is not real, according to experts.

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