What Happened to the Deepfake Threat to the Election?

At a hearing of the House Intelligence Committee in June 2019, experts warned of the democracy-distorting potential of videos generated by artificial intelligence, known as deepfakes. Chair Adam Schiff (D-California) played a clip spoofing Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) and called on social media companies to take the threat seriously, because "after viral deepfakes have polluted the 2020 elections, by then it will be too late." Danielle Citron, a law professor then at the University of Maryland, said "deepfake videos and audios could undermine the democratic process by tipping an election." The 2020 campaign is now history. There were upsets, but deepfakes didn't contribute.