Commonwealth Policy Center

It’s hard to know what to believe anymore. Artificial intelligence can take faces and voice overs and make a real person saying something they’ve never said. Consider a recent deep fake of deceased actor Robin Williams, another one involves Tom Hanks. A new commercial features an AI version of Hanks. Problem is, he never consented. Hanks said, “We saw this coming. We saw that there was going to be this ability to take zeros and ones inside a computer and turn it into a face and a character.” Modern technology and the possibility of deepfakes forces us to be ever so cautious and discerning. If in doubt about whether a celebrity actually said something, ask yourself if it conforms to their character. Then search out the source, see what the person is saying on reliable websites, and confirm the truth before passing it on.