You are smart enough to know not to believe everything you read on the internet because text is so easy to manipulate. You may even be skeptical of still images because of how common Photoshop is. But surely videos can’t be easily faked, right? Think again! The technology to create videos that show someone doing something they never did, called “DeepFakes”, is rapidly leaving the big-budget film studios (remember Forrest Gump meeting JFK?) and becoming more accessible and costs next to nothing. While these videos are fun to laugh at – my favorite involves the Queen of England – we should not forget that they can just as easily be used to harm. Think about a video of a CEO giving away free products to anyone who takes what they want, or a head of state announcing war. Either of these scenarios could create devastating chaos. So please treat even video clips with a good deal of skepticism and use only reputable sources.
