Deepfakes are becoming a bigger issue

Synthetic media generated by AI and represents another dark side of technology and the issue. A deepfake is created by pitting two computer programs against each other -- which are called Generative Adversarial Networks, or GANs. Although this form of Artificial Intelligence has been in the spotlight for the most part of 2019, the biggest news that blew the issue wide open was a LinkedIn user by the name Katie Jones, who appeared on the platform & started connecting with the Who's Who of the political elite in Washington DC. The ease with which deep learning created a real-life image of a person & then penetrated the social media was alarming not just for lawmakers & regulators, but for the general public as well. Lawmakers are especially worried about how this can affect and/or manipulate the 2020 Presidential elections in the U.S. People falling prey to misinformation can greatly jeopardize the transparency of the democratic process.