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.

What's happening: Elected officials, experts and the press have been warning about the potential fallout for business or elections from deepfakes. But apart from a few high-profile examples, the tech so far has been used almost exclusively for porn, according to a landmark new report from Deeptrace Labs. "This is dangerous in the courtroom context because the ultimate goal of the courts is to seek out truth," says Pfefferkorn, who recently wrote an article about deepfakes in the courtroom for the Washington State Bar magazine. Already, people accused of possessing child porn often claim that it's computer-generated, says Hany Farid, a digital forensics expert at UC Berkeley. "I expect that in this and other realms, the rise of AI-synthesized content will increase the likelihood and efficacy of those claiming that real content is fake."