As part of a smear campaign designed to eliminate her daughter's cheerleading rivals, a woman in Bucks County, Penn., created deepfakes depicting her daughter's rivals naked, drinking, or smoking. Then, according to the Bucks County DA, she sent them to her daughter's coaches and to the victims of her attack with text messages urging the teenaged girls to kill themselves.
I'm shocked, but not surprised. Weaponized content is not new. Propaganda is as old as human communication. What is new is the speed at which the tools are improving, as well as the new job titles. With a little training, you can become a "cognitive hacker" or a "social engineer."
The ecosystem is fully in place. Social media platforms thrive on the engagement, those schooled in the art profit from their technical prowess, and those who benefit from the weaponized content have a world of new attack vectors. Who says AI isn't creating new jobs?
My essay from last Sunday, Be (Very) Worried about the Tom Cruise Deepfakes, explores the dark side of deepfake tech. I've also got a free eBook called "What You Need To Know About Deepfakes" if you want to dive a little deeper into the subject.
A Bucks County woman created ‘deepfake’ videos to harass rivals on her daughter’s cheerleading squad, DA saysRaffaela Spone, 50, was charged with cyber harassment and related offenses. There was no indication that her high school-aged daughter knew what her mother was doing.
