94405 - Deep fake news

N. Lygeros

Fake news are certainly already a problem in the framework of influence. But deep fake news which are using artificial intelligence in order to create something which is totally new and of course without any relation with reality, are an even worst problem. It’s not a classical attack but it already belongs to the weapons of hackers. This kind of attack can be very destructive because it has the power of psychological operations. The core of the problem is that it’s very difficult to identify the source because it can be hidden behind many manipulations. And it can be also a combination of countries which want the same result at the end. In any case, we have to remember that information operations are more of a nuisance, a kind of noise, than game changers. Of course this noisy information environment is at the same time rather dangerous and the reason is simple. Those information operations are cheap and they are scalable. There is a relation with the key players. Even if you eliminate multiple leaders of an organization, you have to control who are the key players that remain. Because they are able to continue the operations even without a top level and their behaviors can be more complex to be identified efficiently.