WilmerHale podcast co-host and Partner John Walsh welcomes Partner Jason Chipman, who moderates a discussion between fellow WilmerHale lawyer Matthew Ferraro and special guest Nina Schick on “deepfakes”—using synthetic media to spread misinformation or disinformation.

Schick is an author, advisor and speaker who has become an expert on how technology and artificial intelligence are reshaping our society. She is the author of the 2020 book Deepfakes: The Coming Infocalypse. Ferraro, a counsel at WilmerHale, is a prolific writer on deepfakes and disinformation. Before joining WilmerHale, he worked as an intelligence officer with the US government and brings to his practice his experience in intelligence issues and national security. Chipman’s practice focuses on how the rapidly evolving world of technology interacts with the law—and the opportunities and challenges that interaction presents.

Ferraro and Schick talk with Chipman about the definition and examples of deepfakes, the fast-developing technology used to create and detect deepfakes, the potential for AI technology to be used for good, and the implications of deepfakes on government, business and society as a whole.  

Links: 

• Nina Schick’s website and book, Deepfakes: The Coming Infocalypse
• Matthew Ferraro's bio
• Jason Chipman's bio
• Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds broadcast (Smithsonian Mag)
• “Slick Tom Cruise Deepfakes Signal That Near Flawless Forgeries May Be Here” (NPR)
• “Reddit Just Shut Down the Deepfakes Subreddit” (Vice)
• MIT’s Center for Advanced Virtuality’s project, “In Event of Moon Disaster”
• “Some Deepfaker on YouTube Spent Seven Days Fixing the Shitty De-Aging in The Irishman” (Esquire)
• WilmerHale’s thought leadership on deepfakes