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ABA Journal Features Sharon Nelson’s ABA TECHSHOW Seminar on Deepfakes

March 11, 2020

Sharon Nelson and Lincoln Mead’s ABA TECHSHOW session titled “ Red Pill vs. Blue Pill: How Deepfakes are Defining Digital Reality” was featured by Matt Reynolds in his article titled “The judicial system needs to learn how to combat the threat of ‘deepfake’ evidence” in the ABA Journal’s coverage of the 2020 ABA TECHSHOW on February 28^th.

Excerpt: “Deepfakes” of politicians and celebrities have become commonplace, and the justice system needs to adapt in the face of fake content that often targets women.

That was the central theme of an ABA Techshow panel Friday at the Hyatt Regency Chicago. During the panel, titled “Red Pill vs. Blue Pill: How Deepfakes are Defining Digital Reality,” Sharon Nelson of the technology firm Sensei Enterprises spoke about the evidentiary challenges facing lawyers in an era where it can problematic figuring out what is real and what is not.

Artificial intelligence-generated synthetic videos, text and audio—also known as deepfakes—commonly target celebrities and politicians. But Nelson noted that the technology might have the most significant impact on women in revenge porn cases.

“It’s a huge problem,” Nelson told an audience of about 50 people. “We’re really not doing a good job of corralling, nor are we doing a good job with the deepfakes made to attack an ex-lover and ex-wife.”

Pornographic content accounts for 96% of deepfake content online, according to a report by the company Deeptrace, which is developing tools to unmask fake content.

Virginia and California have enacted laws against deepfakes, Nelson said. But she said that more needs to be done to ensure that people’s images are not being used without their consent.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do with protecting the rights of women and men who have been subjected to some of this,” she said.

Read the entire article here.