Episode 18 - Scripted

What happens when you can't trust anything anymore? That's the question we'll be exploring this week as we look into the world of half truths, lies, bots, manipulation, and our rapidly approaching post truth world. Everything from voice to video to our very sense of self is at stake in this rapidly changing world where the ability to manipulate becomes easier than ever. What does that mean for law, politics, sex, and our culture? Listen in to find out.

Full Transcript Available

Chapters

05:39 Weird Tech Incoming
10:30 Reality and Politics
12:18 Political Armies
14:08 David Ruined Net Neutrality
15:44 Erosion of Trust in Truth
17:23 Centralized Media?
18:23 Apathy
19:01 Conspiracy
23:46 Apathy Benefits Oppression
26:14 The Role of Bad News
27:14 Fake Porn
32:28 Forgery
33:52 Scamming the Elderly
34:51 Laser Phishing
38:20 Perfect You
42:04 Evidence, Courts, Legal Systems
45:19 A Silver Lining?
47:16 Economic Incentives
48:17 Fake Reviews
50:19 Commdifying Us
52:05 What Can We Do?
55:33 Don't Ask What but Why

Audio and Voice Manipulation Examples

Adobe VoCo

Face2Face

Face2Face Paper

Sources

@Misc{burke_2016,
author    = {Burke, Samuel},
title     = {Zuckerberg: Facebook will develop tools to fight fake news},
month     = {Nov},
year      = {2016},
journal   = {CNNMoney},
publisher = {Cable News Network},
url       = {http://money.cnn.com/2016/11/19/technology/mark-zuckerberg-facebook-fake-news-election/index.html},
}
@Misc{cadell_2016,
author    = {Cadell, Catherine},
title     = {China says terrorism, fake news impel greater global internet curbs},
month     = {Nov},
year      = {2016},
journal   = {Reuters},
publisher = {Thomson Reuters},
url       = {https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-china-internet/china-says-terrorism-fake-news-impel-greater-global-internet-curbs-idUKKBN13F01K?il=0},
}
@Misc{cole_2018,
author  = {Cole, Samantha},
title   = {Reddit Just Shut Down the Deepfakes Subreddit},
month   = {Feb},
year    = {2018},
journal = {Motherboard},
url     = {https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/neqb98/reddit-shuts-down-deepfakes},
}
@Misc{hern_2017,
author    = {Hern, Alex},
title     = {Thirty countries use 'armies of opinion shapers' to manipulate democracy – report},
month     = {Nov},
year      = {2017},
journal   = {The Guardian},
publisher = {Guardian News and Media},
url       = {https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/nov/14/social-media-influence-election-countries-armies-of-opinion-shapers-manipulate-democracy-fake-news},
}
@Misc{kelly_truong_shahbaz_earp_white_2017,
author    = {Kelly, Sanja and Truong, Mai and Shahbaz, Adrian and Earp, Madeline and White, Jessica},
title     = {Freedom on the Net 2017: Manipulating Social Media to Undermine Democracy},
month     = {Nov},
year      = {2017},
journal   = {Freedom House},
publisher = {Freedom of the Net},
url       = {https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-net/freedom-net-2017},
}
@Article{linden_leiserowitz_rosenthal_maibach_2017,
author  = {Linden, Sander Van Der and Leiserowitz, Anthony and Rosenthal, Seth and Maibach, Edward},
title   = {Inoculating the Public against Misinformation about Climate Change},
journal = {Global Challenges},
year    = {2017},
volume  = {1},
number  = {2},
pages   = {1600008},
doi     = {10.1002/gch2.201600008},
}
@Misc{mujezinovic_2018,
author    = {Mujezinovic, Damir},
title     = {Google's AI And Deep Learning Researcher Warns About AI-Fueled 'Mass Population Control'},
month     = {Mar},
year      = {2018},
journal   = {The Inquisitr},
publisher = {The Inquisitr},
url       = {https://www.inquisitr.com/opinion/4836851/googles-ai-and-deep-learning-researcher-warns-about-ai-fueled-mass-population-control/},
}
@Misc{newitz_2015,
author    = {Newitz, Annalee},
title     = {Ashley Madison Code Shows More Women, and More Bots},
month     = {Aug},
year      = {2015},
journal   = {Gizmodo},
publisher = {gizmodo.com},
url       = {https://gizmodo.com/ashley-madison-code-shows-more-women-and-more-bots-1727613924},
}
@Misc{newitz_2015,
author    = {Newitz, Annalee},
title     = {One Chart That Shows How Much Money Ashley Madison Made Using Bots},
month     = {Aug},
year      = {2015},
journal   = {Gizmodo},
publisher = {gizmodo.com},
url       = {https://gizmodo.com/one-chart-that-shows-how-much-money-ashley-madison-made-1727821132},
}
@Misc{ovadya_2017,
author    = {Ovadya, Aviv},
title     = {Even in September of 2015, hyperpartisan news sites had massive engagement on Facebook},
month     = {Oct},
year      = {2017},
journal   = {Medium},
publisher = {Tow Center},
url       = {https://medium.com/tow-center/even-in-september-of-2015-hyperpartisan-news-sites-had-massive-engagement-on-facebook-c07ab3016bd1},
}
@Misc{price_2017,
author    = {Price, Rob},
title     = {CGI and AI are going to turbocharge 'fake news' and make it far harder to tell what's real},
month     = {Jul},
year      = {2017},
journal   = {Business Insider},
publisher = {Business Insider},
url       = {http://www.businessinsider.com/cgi-ai-fake-news-videos-real-2017-7},
}
@Misc{solon_2016,
author    = {Solon, Olivia},
title     = {CGI scans will allow actors to return to their youth... forever},
month     = {Feb},
year      = {2016},
journal   = {WIRED},
publisher = {WIRED UK},
url       = {https://www.wired.co.uk/article/digital-scanners-youthful},
}
@Misc{bbcstaff_2017,
author    = {BBC Staff},
title     = {Cambridge scientists consider fake news 'vaccine'},
month     = {Jan},
year      = {2017},
journal   = {BBC News},
publisher = {BBC},
url       = {http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-38714404},
}
@Misc{reutersstaff_2016,
author    = {Reuters Staff},
title     = {China says to crackdown on fake news from social media},
month     = {Jul},
year      = {2016},
journal   = {Reuters},
publisher = {Thomson Reuters},
url       = {https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-internet/china-says-to-crackdown-on-fake-news-from-social-media-idUSKCN0ZK06N?il=0 without},
}
@InProceedings{thies2016face,
author    = {Thies, J. and Zollh{\"o}fer, M. and Stamminger, M. and Theobalt, C. and Nie{\ss}ner, M.},
title     = {Face2Face: Real-time Face Capture and Reenactment of RGB Videos},
booktitle = {Proc. Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), IEEE, June 2016},
year      = {2016},
}
@Misc{wardle_2017,
author  = {Wardle, Claire},
title   = {Fake news. It's complicated.},
month   = {Feb},
year    = {2017},
journal = {First Draft News},
url     = {https://firstdraftnews.org/fake-news-complicated/},
}
@Misc{warzel_2018,
author  = {Warzel, Charlie},
title   = {He Predicted The 2016 Fake News Crisis. Now Hes Worried About An Information Apocalypse.},
month   = {Feb},
year    = {2018},
journal = {BuzzFeed},
url     = {https://www.buzzfeed.com/charliewarzel/the-terrifying-future-of-fake-news},
}

Published