At TED, Sam Gregory asks, ‘When AI can fake reality, who can you trust?’

November 2023: WITNESS’ Executive Director Sam Gregory spoke at TED Democracy on how we can prepare for increasingly prevalent and sophisticated deepfakes and AI generated media in our information landscape. Utilizing case studies from WITNESS’ Deepfakes Rapid Response Force, Gregory emphasized the need for a range of socio-technical and political approaches, that shift the burden from end-users to ‘spot’ synthetic media to systems level solutions.

We’re fast approaching a world where widespread, hyper-realistic deepfakes lead us to dismiss reality, says technologist and human rights advocate Sam Gregory. What happens to democracy when we can’t trust what we see? Learn three key steps to protecting our ability to distinguish human from synthetic — and why fortifying our perception of truth is crucial to our AI-infused future.

Visit the TED Democracy program here.

Read our broader principles and recommendations derived from decades of anticipatory global work to prepare not panic for deepfakes and AI.

To keep up to date with WITNESS’ work on deepfakes and generative AI visit: gen-ai.witness.org.