Deepfakes, Our Future or Our Downfall?; Analysis on The Usage of Deepfakes

In the modern world we have technology constantly developing and making things more convenient for us as a society. However, deepfakes are a technology that we don’t know much about regarding future development, yet could still cause big potential changes in our lives. Deepfakes are a technology that originally were used in a sort of comedic sense, but can potentially become very beneficial or very harmful depending on its usage. With the constant usage of deepfakes, we need to constantly moderate them and be able to thoroughly detect what is real and what isn’t.
With the threat of deepfakes approaching, there is a high chance that people will abuse the technology presented. The development of deepfakes could cause a loss of privacy, security, and spread of misinformation throughout society. With the development of deepfakes people have misused the technology to portray people in a negative light, and also make people’s face well-known with negative connotations. However deepfakes are not something that is fully set-in stone as a potential disaster. Besides the fact that deepfakes are meant to be used for memes, people have also begun to start using deepfakes in positive connotations such as for helping people with training, connecting with each other, and portraying actors who are unwell or are no longer with us.

In order to conduct my STS research, I will be searching through various published journals and articles that properly explain what deepfakes are and how they are used. I also will examine different usages of deepfakes in our general environment, and will example uses of deepfakes in public court cases and how it affected the overall outcome. This will help me see both sides of deepfakes and how there are advantages and disadvantages of the growing technology. With my continued research I hope to be able to properly analyze the good, and bad of deepfakes to make an overall final determination and discussion about whether or not deepfakes are for the good or bad of mankind’s future.

School of Engineering and Applied Science
Bachelor of Science in Computer Science
Technical Advisor: Daniel Graham
Technical Writing Advisor: Rosanne Vrugtman
STS Advisor: Joshua Earle
Technical Team Members: Brandon Ongtingco