Thanks to new artificial intelligence, it is now becoming much easier to produce fake audio and video. This is an aspect of high-quality artificial intelligence that is often overlooked, and it makes no sense.

An article on theVerge.com  discusses this new technology and shows examples of its work. However, the date the article was published is July 2017. One would certainly think something as drastic as this would have been a much more of a hot topic around news and social media. Thinking about the potential of what this technology could do is extremely discouraging.

The first thought that comes to mind when considering the potential disasters that can erupt from this artificial intelligence is the news, particularly politics. WRVO played a sound bite in their story that completely appeared to be President  Donald Trump. As it turned out, it was not Trump speaking. What made the soundbite even more disturbing was the fact that it did not just sound like a monotone reading in Trump’s voice. It sounded like an actual human sentence with emphasis and inflections.

 “Fake News” is a term that has already become pretty well known over the past year or so thanks to its use by Trump and others. The idea of how misleading the artificial intelligence could now make any video or sound bite is nothing short of appalling. Traditionally, video has been known more or less as the medium that provides the most truth by nature. However, this technology puts that in jeopardy.

If Americans were already unsure of what is fake news and what is not, this technology could blur the lines between truth and reality even further.

Moving beyond politics, let’s say this artificial intelligence leaks out into the mainstream. People will spend countless hours altering videos for a little while until everything finally reaches a point where video simply cannot be a reliable source for the truth. Quite frankly, it would become the complete opposite.

Going back to the Verge article, the headline reads, “New AI research makes it easier to create fake footage of someone speaking.” The sub-head then adds, “Although the scientist behind it would really rather you didn’t.” That seems about as effective as parents telling their adolescent child not to do something.

Unfortunately, this is one among many problems our country has to address and immediately find a solution to. Although, it is always easier said than done.