Make It Until You Can Fake It

Dateline: Auckland, 8th August 2024.I’m sorry to say that I’d never heard of the British pop star FKA Twigs, but I was fascinated by her testimony to a US Senate Judiciary subcommittee that she has developed her own deepfake version of herself (trained on her personality but able to speak French, Korean and Japanese, which she cannot) so that she can leave the bots to interact with journalists and her legions of fans while she focuses on her music.ShareThe ProblemThis seems a very farsighted and innovative use of the technology. Ms. Twigs says that in an age that demands a lot of press interaction and promotional work, this will free her up to “spend more time making art”.  I already getting confused about what “real” means in a variety of circumstances, so I am naturally concerned to know how the fans and journalists will know that they are looking at the real fake FKA Twigs and not a fake fake FKA Twigs?It is already quite difficult to tell a real celebrity from a celebrity fake, as evidenced by the fact that American pop singer Katy Perry’s own mother was fooled by a picture of the star attending the Met Gala in a billowing floral gown. On Instagram, Ms. Perry shared a screen grab of the text message from her mother saying “What a gorgeous gown, you look like the Rose Parade, you are your own float lol” and her responding “lol mom the AI got you too, BEWARE!”. Subscribe nowDaveGPTMy legions of adoring fans, friends…Make It Until You Can Fake It