The Emergence of Deepfake Technology: A Review

Novel digital technologies make it increasingly difficult to distinguish between real and fake media. One of the most recent developments contributing to the problem is the emergence of deepfakes which are hyper-realistic videos that apply artificial intelligence (AI) to depict someone say and do things that never happened. Coupled with the reach and speed of social media, convincing deepfakes can quickly reach millions of people and have negative impacts on our society. While scholarly research on the topic is sparse, this study analyzes 84 publicly available online news articles to examine what deepfakes are and who produces them, what the benefits and threats of deepfake technology are, what examples of deepfakes there are, and how to combat deepfakes. The results suggest that while deepfakes are a significant threat to our society, political system and business, they can be combatted via legislation and regulation, corporate policies and voluntary action, education and training, as well as the development of technology for deepfake detection, content authentication, and deepfake prevention. The study provides a comprehensive review of deepfakes and provides cybersecurity and AI entrepreneurs with business opportunities in fighting against media forgeries and fake news.