'This gap opens up of doubt and scepticism about everything': Jess and Morgs confront the politics of deepfakes I t appears the interviewer has got him on the ropes. "For the record, I did not take part in a pagan ceremony with minor members of the royal family in which we daubed ourselves in paint," states the beleaguered politician, caught outside Buckingham Palace with his flies undone and forced to defend himself. This is a fabrication, of course - I'm watching the scene play out in an east London dance studio - but it doesn't feel miles away from something that could be true. And how do we know what's the truth anyway? The pair tell modern stories with ambitious tech - film and live camera work - and often techy themes, too.

Meta has had policy changes recommended to it, including demoting'high risk' content, making it less likely to appear in users' feeds. Meta has had policy changes recommended to it, including demoting'high risk' content, making it less likely to appear in users' feeds. Meta ordered to remove UK deepfakes as oversight board criticises'inadequate' safeguards Meta's "supreme court" has ordered the tech company to take down deepfake videos of a UK politician and a young Muslim woman from Facebook and do more to tackle AI-generated fake imagery . A fake video showing a Labour party councillor in Scotland making inflammatory comments about refugees should not have been left up by Facebook, the board said. It also ruled that an AI-generated video of a Muslim campaign volunteer should have been removed after it falsely depicted her offering health advice while carrying out absurd exercises or eating junk food.

Matt Ford is a freelance contributor to Mashable. All products featured here are independently selected by our editors and writers. If you buy something through links on our site, Mashable may earn an affiliate commission. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Learn more about how we select deals .

In the biggest-ever legal action against harmful deepfake websites, the Manhattan District Attorney's Office has seized 12 sites that collectively targeted around 1,200 victims. For the best part of a decade, abusive deepfake "pornography" websites have published thousands of nonconsensual videos depicting women, including high-profile celebrities, politicians, and public figures, into sexual situations. Now, in what is likely the largest takedown of explicit deepfake websites to date, officials in New York have seized more than a dozen of the harmful sites. On Monday, the Manhattan District Attorney's Office announced the seizure of 12 domains which it says have been used for "unlawfully" sharing, publishing, and selling celebrity deepfake videos. Around 1,200 people--overwhelmingly women--were depicted in nonconsensual sexual images and videos on the websites, the office says.

We earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Deepfakes are wrecking influencers' credibility, one fake ad at a time E arlier this year, Emily Schuman, the creator of the lifestyle blog Cupcakes and Cashmere, saw a photo of herself she didn't recognize on Instagram . In a sponsored ad, Schuman, who has more than 500,000 Instagram followers, is holding up a vial of GLP-1 drugs, advertising the telehealth company Gala. There was just one problem: Schuman had never heard of Gala and had nothing to do with the ad. The ad was based on a digitally altered version of a selfie Schuman had taken in her car and posted on Instagram years earlier.

Pet owners, rescue agencies, and wildlife groups are calling for new safeguards as AI makes it harder to tell whether animals, from polar bears to house cats, are real or fake. AI-generated videos and pictures are destroying one of the largest and most enduring sources of joy and compassion on the internet: animals . Whether the imagery features sailors rescuing a polar bear, baby cows separated from their mothers, or a lost pet that was miraculously found, many people have reached the point where they can't take the creatures on their feeds at face value anymore. The explosion of deepfakes and AI slop over the past few years has led to widespread frustration among viewers, creators, and organizations that support animals, forcing everyone to hunt in the pixels for glitches or other telltale signs of AI. Mibbby Butler was overjoyed one day in April when she received a text message that her lost cat, Brooklyn, had supposedly been found.

Along with Anthony Albanese, common targets for deepfakes included ABC financial journalist Alan Kohler; and politicians Jacqui Lambie and Angus Taylor. Along with Anthony Albanese, common targets for deepfakes included ABC financial journalist Alan Kohler; and politicians Jacqui Lambie and Angus Taylor. Deepfake Anthony Albanese used in celebrity scams duping Australians out of $7.4m, Asic warns Australia's corporate watchdog says PM is the figure most commonly used in deepfakes to promote phony investment opportunities There has been a steep rise in scammers luring victims into phony investment opportunities using deepfakes of celebrities and politicians, Australia's corporate watchdog has warned. And Anthony Albanese is the figure most commonly co-opted. Real footage of the prime minister, overlaid with fake audio promising Australians can invest $4,000 to earn $40,000 a month, appears in one video online.

"I think it should stand for," one 9-year-old says. Here's why kids of all ages are calling AI "disgusting" and "creepy." Forget cheating on homework and chatbot friends. Some kids are getting in on a new AI trend: thinking it sucks. In the four years since chatbots went mainstream, and their marketing campaigns went into overdrive, young people have grown increasingly skeptical of the hype around LLMs. Yes, many of them still use the tech for school assignments and companionship, but according to market research firm YPulse, 37 percent of teens aged 13 to 17 cringe when they see AI content like music and videos, and more than half worry about misinformation and deepfakes.

Can AI equalize political campaign ads - or will it remain a tool for spreading lies? F rom the comfort of his bed, Jonathan Rinaldi, a political candidate for a city council seat in Queens, New York, tinkered away on his iPhone, prompting an artificial intelligence chatbot to mock up fake news hits and endorsements he had never received. During the campaign last October, Rinaldi shared one of those stories, made to appear real with a CNN logo, on his Facebook and Instagram. It stated that Lynn Schulman, his opponent and an incumbent Democrat, had been "forced to drop out of the race due to a series of critical mistakes". But Schulman had not quit her campaign, and in November, won by a landslide.

Meta's Oversight Board has called on the social media company to strengthen its protection for ordinary people targeted by sexualized deepfakes. The Board recommends the addition of AI-generated impersonations in Meta's Adult Sexual Exploitation policy, arguing that those images and videos are non-consensual by default. It also wants Meta to allow users to designate connected accounts, such as trusted friends and family, who can report potential violations like non-consensual intimate imagery on their behalf. Finally, the Board recommends making AI-generated sexual impersonation a separate category from harassment and nudity in the company's content reporting and appeal forms. At the moment, only the residents of Texas and Florida have access to a specialized form that lists deepfake intimate imagery as a reason for the report.