Director, Commonwealth Policy Center

The program called Radiolab aired a program on new technologies that can alter what people are saying. This goes beyond just cutting and pasting portions of a speech. This new technology can synchronize facial expressions and lip movement to create words out of thin air and attribute them to anyone's image. This kind of thing has been successfully used in Hollywood movies, most notably with a deceased actor in the Star Wars movie Rogue One. But the implications of this technology are serious. When a political leader's words are manipulated it can cause great harm. Especially in a day when people are quick to believe what they see on social media. This puts an even greater burden on each of us to be extra cautious and make sure that what we think we're seeing and hearing on the Internet, is true.