Have you wondered why I haven't been writing much recently? Homestay students.
Now the students are good kids and can be fun to be around but for me it is mostly a matter of obligation. They deserve a great homestay but I never agreed to it. My wife signed me up and now I'm on the hook for a whole lot of extra work cooking, cleaning, transporting and entertaining. I don't mind work. I do mind doing work when its thrust upon me and I have no choice.
If I choose to do the work and receive the pay? I would be smiling a lot more as I'll cheerfully finish any task I agree in good faith to do. If I didn't have any choice in it and I got volunteered for something I didn't want to do? The whole scenario changes. A lot.
How do homestay students have any correlation with homestay students? Honestly they have nothing in common. With one little exception:
If there is agency and consent in how a deepfake is used then it can be perfectly legitimate. If it is created without consent then it is something that is potentially lifechanging in a very negative way.
The most common way that deepfakes harm people is in damage to reputation.
A well created deepfake can fool people into believing something is real when it truly isn't. A politician acting or saying something that is damaging to their reputation. A young woman (or man) participating in an action that ruins their reputation. A celebrity appearing to endorse something without pay or even their knowledge. Any of these can be damaging to the person and sometimes in a non-reversible way. If a politician has their reputation ruined how can they effectively run again? Even worse.... If the politician was actually the best candidate and their name is slandered by an unethical poor candidate then the poor candidate gets into office and everyone in the region pay the price.
Equally bad are deepfakes which are used for fraud. A video showing a loved one in a hostage situation? A parent may pay a ransom without their child even being in danger. A deepfake to a grandparent saying "Please send money, I spent too much on vacation and need money to get home". If it is a deepfake then the grandparent may send money to a fraudster.
How does trust exist when evidence can be faked? How do courts work when an alibi could be fraudulent? How do they work when submitted evidence could just as easily been staged? How do we trust the news, video's, audio, or other things in the world around us when we can't trust our eyes and ears?
At first glance it is easy to assume that Deepfakes are inherently bad.
But I would like to propose that intent, agency and consent matter and can switch the narrative on DeepFakes.
Let's look at some DeepFake scenario's where it could be a positive thing and show you that with consent it can actually be a good thing. I'm sure with time I could come up with many different scenario's that would fit but instead I'll just come up with three.
Let's assume that you have an actor who allows his or her image to be used for DeepFake technology. Indeed I have heard cases where actors have done just that. Imagine a scene which requires an actor to meet up with a younger version of themself. Perhaps a movie where some scenes require the actor to have two versions of themself...an older and a younger version. There is de aging technology available to studio's and of course you could just use two actors but if you have one actor and have him play both parts but use deepfake to change their image to fit the narrative. Useful and with the actors permission I doubt it would be an issue.
Or how about stunt actors? If you can have a stunt actor do a dangerous scene and then deepfake it to look like the lead? Both actor and stuntman get paid. The director greater flexibility in how to shoot the shot. No-one loses and the deepfake is useful.
Or perhaps an actor gets injured during shooting the film. Let's assume that it is an injury to the face so that the actor can't continue until the wound heals. That means everyone on set gets laid off and production shuts down. However, if the injured actor can continue and a little deepfake technology keeps the audience from realizing that there has been a substitution? The movie gets made, everyone gets paid, no-one gets hurt.
Another example comes a little closer to home. My father died of bone cancer when my youngest son was only a few months old. He got to see both of my children as infants but they never got to see their grandfather. He would have loved to make a video for them so they could get a glimpse of who he was and a bit about their lineage. Unfortunately by the time my oldest son was born my father was only a shell of who he had been in life. By the time my younger son was born even I could barely discern who he was. He absolutely refused to let his grandchildren get a video of him as a wither husk of the man he was. He wanted me to tell stories of him when he was strong rather than have them see him at the end. If I had deepfake technology? I could have taken a video of him and had him tell his stories and then superimpose his healthy image instead of his dying one. My children could have seen their grandfather as the man he was in life....not the one near death's door.
I would have cherished that video almost as much as my father would have cherished making it.
Here is yet another angle to consider. What if deepfakes could be used to give great actors with the wrong look more roles to play? There are a great many talented actors out there who don't get jobs because they just don't have the right look. What if deepfakes could change all that? Take a very good actor in their late 30's who wants to play a teenager? Obviously if you just cast them in the role it doesn't work. Wrong look and unbelievable but how about if you had AI magic to create a younger version of themselves? The actor does the movie, deepfakes change the age, now you have someone who looks the part. But what if it is someone who needs to be beautiful/handsome but the best actor is average looking? A bit of magic and deepfake and now the actor fits the role.
Or how about a role that no-one really wants to have their image associated with? Rather than going down the path of questionable content lets consider things like Pepto Bismol commercials. How many actors would really want to have their face associated with the slogan "I have a bad case of diarrhea"? I know I would not. However, if I do the video and we deepfake a realistic but totally artificial face on top of it? I get paid and don't have to live with the idea of being diarrhea guy.
If you ask my opinion? Consent matters. I would be horrified if I found my face on a deepfake in an undignified manner. If I saw my face doing something dishonorable. If I saw my face spouting lies or disinformation I would be livid. If someone stole my image and used it without my consent...that is a violation of my privacy and who I am.
However, I'm far too self conscious to be seen on a YouTube video but if I could deepfake myself with a made up image? Or maybe a younger and slightly better looking version of myself? I might be more willing to upload something .... and yes, let any potential viewers know that it is my content but not my image. In that case: I'm perfectly fine with deepfake technology.
And if ever a time comes that my sons want me to record a video for grandchildren I'll never see? And they give me the opportunity to make an image of me when I was younger and less withered? I think I would probably jump at it.
All those scenario's are deepfakes....but when I give permission I don't see nearly as big an issue.
