How AI and deepfakes are being used for malicious reasons

How AI and deepfakes are being used for malicious reasons | Global Stage | GZERO Media

What could someone do to you with an entirely false audio clip that sounds just like you?

Could they damage your relationships? Sure. Scam your loved ones? Probably. Hurt your career or even destroy your public reputation entirely? That’s what nearly happened to one pro-Ukrainian activist in Canada, according to Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith.

Russian agents “created a fake audio of him saying something he never said. They then took a legitimate real broadcast of the CBC, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and they spliced into that this deepfake audio,” Smith explained. “This is the recipe that will probably be followed, take legitimate things and insert forgery within it.”

Smith spoke at a GZERO Global Stage discussion with Ian Bremmer, President and Founder, Eurasia Group & GZERO Media, Eléonore Caroit, Vice-President of the French Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, Rappler CEO Maria Ressa, moderated by Julien Pain, journalist and host of Franceinfo, live from the 2023 Paris Peace Forum.

Watch the full livestream panel discussion: "Live from the Paris Peace Forum: Embracing technology to protect democracy"

The livestream was part of the Global Stage series, produced by GZERO in partnership with Microsoft. These discussions convene heads of state, business leaders, technology experts from around the world for critical debate about the geopolitical and technology trends shaping our world.

More from GZERO Media

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ruled Tuesday that certifying elections is a required duty of county election boards in Georgia, and they’re not allowed to refuse to finalize results based on suspicions of miscounts or fraud.
TNS/ABACA via Reuters Connect

On Tuesday, a judge in Georgia blocked a new rule requiring that election ballots be hand-counted in the state, a change that allies of former President Donald Trump wanted. Opponents of the rule, which the Georgia State Election Board passed in September, said it would cause unnecessary delays in results and lead to avoidable electoral pandemonium.

The Media Viability Accelerator is a free web analytics platform built by Internews and Microsoft on Azure, funded by USAID and Microsoft's Democracy Forward initiative. Using Azure AI, the MVA harnesses the power of big data and machine learning to provide performance insights while ensuring that participants retain control over their data. Through the MVA, media outlets can access a multilingual tool that visualizes performance data and receive actionable insights to improve performance. Read more in Microsoft On the Issues’ latest newsletter.

Palestinians walk during the evacuation of the Jabalia refugee camp and the Sheikh Radwan and Abu Iskandar neighborhoods in the northern Gaza Strip on October 12, 2024.
Mahmoud Issa/Reuters

Israel launched a new offensive in northern Gaza earlier this month, making it even more difficult to get aid in, and the UN’s human rights office warns that the IDF “appears to be cutting off North Gaza completely.”

Prime Minister of Poland, Donald Tusk gestures while speaking during the weekly Ministerial meeting in Warsaw.
Marek Antoni Iwanczuk / SOPA Images via Reuters Connect

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in recent days unilaterally suspended the right to asylum for migrants crossing into Poland from neighboring Belarus.

Andrei Belousov, Russia's Defence Minister, attends a meeting with Zhang Youxia, Vice Chairman of China's Central Military Commission, in Beijing, China, in this still image taken from video released on October 15, 2024.
Russian Defence Ministry/Handout via REUTERS

Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov met with China’s top civilian defense official Zhang Youxia on Tuesday in Beijing, where both sides pledged to “continue working closely” to deepen military relations.

Read: “The Empty Space,” by Peter Brook. In this thin volume, first published in 1968, famed director Peter Brook divides theater into its “Deadly,” “Holy,” “Rough,” and “Immediate” forms.

Turkish citizens disembark naval ship TCG Bayraktar carrying people evacuated from Lebanon upon their arrival at a port in Turkey's Mediterranean coastal province of Mersin, Turkey, October 10, 2024.
REUTERS/Umit Bektas

25: Over 25% of Lebanon is facing Israeli evacuation orders, which were expanded to include 20 villages on Tuesday.

Walmart is fueling American jobs and strengthening communities by investing in local businesses. Athletic Brewing landed a deal with Walmart in 2021. Since then, co-founders Bill Shufelt and John Walker have hired more than 200 employees and built a150,000-square-foot brewery in Milford, CT. Athletic Brewing is one of many US-based suppliers working with Walmart. By 2030, the retailer is estimated to support the creation of over 750,000 US jobs by investing an additional $350 billion in products made, grown, or assembled in America. Learn more about Walmart’s commitment to US manufacturing.

In this photo illustration, the Saudi Arabian Airlines (Saudia) logo seen displayed on a smartphone with an Artificial intelligence (AI) chip and symbol in the background.
(Photo by Budrul Chukrut / SOPA Images/Sipa USA)

Sir Edward Byrne, recently named the head of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia, or KAUST, signaled that the institution will prioritize US technology and cut off ties with China if it jeopardizes its access to chips made in the US.