(NB: This is the first of what we hope will be many guest posts for CAF's Giving Thought blog. As such, it is important to clarify up front that while we retain some degree of editorial control, the thoughts and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Charities Aid Foundation. Right, as you were.)
Recently I’
ve been thinking about what impact deep fakes will have on people and their ability to trust what they see. This is a fast approaching challenge and you need to get on top of it and develop a plan. If you are unsure about what deep fakes are, or why they will affect your
organisation and your customers, read on.
It's now possible to generate a fake face
with the press of a button. You can
make fake text messages to trick your mates. Do fake fake
check ins and even
fake a motorbike accident to get more likes and followers.
We're moving to an era of
deep fakes that will only grow and grow as technology becomes ever more powerful and accessible for all people - no matter what their motives might be. But don’t worry, new technology is
being developed to detect the fakes that new technology has created. Ever feel like you’
ve disappeared through the looking glass?
What impact will this have on the average human psyche? Thanks in part to the ongoing attacks on the mainstream media for being “Fake News” by Donald Trump (and a growing number of other public figures, it has to be said), the question of who to trust has become a battlefield. But what happens when you become unable to distinguish the fake from the real?
This happens already - there are many examples of those on political extremes circulating doctored pictures of events that simply
didn’t happen, or at least didn't happen
in the way they are being described. And often before these fake stories can be debunked they’
ve already been shared,
retweeted and liked tens of thousands of times, spreading their propaganda and misinformation far and wide. Once that genie is out of the bottle, it's almost impossible to put it back in.
Fast forward two or three years and it is extremely likely that we will be even less able to trust the information we are presented with. We will become more paranoid and mistrustful of what we see and read.
At this point in time charities still have relatively high trust levels with the general public, but this cannot be taken for granted. In fact there are signs it may already be under threat: according to some research, one in five already consider charities untrustworthy.