Rewriting History: The Ethical Implications of Creating Deepfakes of the Deceased

OpenAI’s Sora App tops Charts, Sparks Fears of Ancient Misinformation and Deepfake Abuse

San Francisco, CA – OpenAI’s new text-to-video request, Sora, has rapidly ascended to the top of the iOS App Store, surpassing one million downloads faster than its popular predecessor, ChatGPT. However, the app’s success is shadowed by growing concerns regarding its potential for misuse, specifically the creation of historical misinformation and deepfakes featuring deceased individuals who cannot provide consent.

Launched last week, Sora initially garnered praise for its innovative social structure, allowing users to control the use of their likeness in AI-generated videos. Yet, experts now warn that this safeguard may be insufficient to combat the app’s capacity to fabricate convincing, yet entirely false, narratives.

Within minutes, Sora can generate short videos depicting historical figures in fabricated scenarios. Examples include Aretha Franklin crafting soy candles,Carrie fisher attempting a slackline,Nat King Cole ice skating in Havana,and Marilyn Monroe teaching Vietnamese to schoolchildren. This capability presents a meaningful challenge for legal representatives of estates, like attorney Adam Streisand, who previously represented Marilyn Monroe’s estate.

“The challenge with AI is not the law,” Streisand explained, noting California law already protects celebrities from unauthorized AI reproductions. “The question is whether a non-AI judicial process that depends on human beings will ever be able to play an almost 5th dimensional game of whack-a-mole.”

NBC News demonstrated the app’s power to generate deeply convincing,yet fabricated,historical moments. Sora produced realistic videos of President Dwight Eisenhower admitting to accepting bribes, Margaret Thatcher downplaying the importance of D-Day, and john F. Kennedy falsely claiming the moon landing was a hoax.

The proliferation of such deepfakes, particularly those involving deceased individuals, has already prompted complaints from family members. As Sora’s popularity continues to surge, the debate surrounding AI-generated content, consent, and the preservation of historical accuracy intensifies. The app’s rapid adoption underscores the urgent need for effective strategies to address the ethical and legal implications of increasingly complex AI technologies.

How might the creation of post-mortem deepfakes impact the grieving process for individuals and communities?

The Rise of Post-Mortem deepfakes

The rapid advancement of deepfake technology has opened a Pandora’s Box of ethical dilemmas.While much discussion centers on the misuse of deepfakes involving living individuals – political disinformation, non-consensual pornography – a particularly sensitive area is emerging: the creation of deepfakes of deceased people. These post-mortem deepfakes, utilizing AI-generated content, raise profound questions about consent, legacy, grief, and the very nature of past truth. The accessibility of tools, as highlighted in resources like Daisy-Zhang/Awesome-Deepfakes, is accelerating this trend.

Understanding the Technology Behind Digital Resurrection

Deepfake creation relies on complex artificial intelligence (AI), specifically generative adversarial networks (GANs). These networks learn from vast datasets of images and videos to convincingly mimic a person’s likeness, voice, and mannerisms.

Here’s a simplified breakdown:

1. Data Collection: Gathering extensive footage of the deceased – interviews,films,home videos. The more data, the more realistic the deepfake.
2. Model Training: The AI is trained to recognize and replicate the individual’s facial features, expressions, and vocal patterns.
3. Content Generation: The trained model can then be used to generate new content, placing the deceased in scenarios they never experienced.
4. refinement & editing: Post-production techniques refine the deepfake, addressing inconsistencies and enhancing realism.

This process, while technically complex, is becoming increasingly streamlined and accessible, lowering the barrier to entry for creating digital recreations of the departed.

Ethical Concerns: A Multifaceted Problem

The ethical implications of deceased person deepfakes are numerous and complex. They extend far beyond simple concerns about authenticity.

* lack of Consent: The most fundamental issue. Deceased individuals cannot provide consent for their likeness to be used in this way. Even if family members approve, does that constitute sufficient authorization?

* Distortion of Legacy: Deepfakes can easily misrepresent a person’s views, beliefs, or actions, perhaps damaging their reputation and distorting their historical legacy. Imagine a historical figure “endorsing” a modern political ideology they would have vehemently opposed.

* Emotional Distress for Grieving Families: Seeing a realistic, yet fabricated, version of a loved one can be deeply unsettling and hinder the grieving process. It can prolong grief and create a false sense of connection.

* Exploitation & Commercialization: The potential for exploiting the likeness of deceased celebrities or historical figures for commercial gain is important. This raises questions about intellectual property rights and the ethical boundaries of profiting from someone’s image after death.

* Erosion of Trust in Media: The proliferation of convincing deepfakes further erodes public trust in all forms of media, making it increasingly challenging to discern fact from fiction. This impacts our understanding of history and current events.

* Legal Gray Areas: Current legal frameworks are largely unprepared to address the specific challenges posed by post-mortem deepfakes. Existing laws regarding defamation, right of publicity, and intellectual property may not adequately cover these scenarios.

Real-World Examples & emerging Cases

While still relatively nascent, examples of deepfake technology applied to deceased individuals are beginning to surface.

* The “Resurrected” Audrey Hepburn: In 2023, a deepfake of Audrey Hepburn was used in a Gal Gadot-starring perfume commercial. While intended as a tribute, it sparked debate about the ethics of digitally recreating a deceased actress.

* Historical Figure recreations: Several projects aim to “bring to life” historical figures through deepfakes for educational purposes. While potentially valuable, these projects must be approached with extreme caution to avoid misrepresentation.

* Digital Afterlives & AI Companions: Companies are exploring the creation of “digital afterlives” – AI-powered chatbots or virtual representations of deceased loved ones. These raise complex questions about grief, identity, and the boundaries of technology.

Navigating the Legal Landscape: Current & proposed Regulations

The legal response to deepfake technology is evolving. Currently, there’s a patchwork of laws addressing different aspects of the issue.

* Right of Publicity: Many jurisdictions recognize a “right of publicity,” which protects a person’s likeness from unauthorized commercial use. However, the application of this right to deceased individuals varies.

* Defamation Laws: If a deepfake portrays a deceased person in a false and damaging light, defamation laws might apply, but proving damages can be challenging.

* Proposed Legislation: Several states are considering legislation specifically targeting deepfakes, including provisions addressing the use of deceased individuals’ likenesses. These laws often focus on requiring disclosures or prohibiting malicious deepfakes.

* Intellectual Property Rights: copyright laws may protect the original footage used to create a deepfake, but they don’t necessarily prevent the creation of the deepfake itself.