Deepfakes may not have upended the 2020 U.S. election, but their day is coming

Many projected that deepfake videos would play a lead role in the 2020 elections, with the prospect of foreign interference and disinformation campaigns looming large in the leadup to election day. Yet, if there has been a surprise in campaign tactics this cycle, it is that these AI-generated videos have played a very minor role, little more than a cameo (so far, at least). Deepfake videos are much more convincing today due to giant leaps in the field of Generative Adversarial Networks. These are generated videos that are doctored to alter reality, showing events or depicting speech that never happened. Because people tend to lend substantial credence to what they see and hear, deepfakes pose a very real danger.