How is artificial intelligence redefining our perception of reality and truth? Can AI be creative? And how is it changing art and innovation? Does AI-generated perfection detach us from reality and genuine human connection?

Henry Ajder is an advisor, speaker, and broadcaster working at the frontier of the generative AI and the synthetic media revolution. He advises organizations on the opportunities and challenges these technologies present, including Adobe, Meta, The European Commission, BBC, The Partnership on AI, and The House of Lords. Previously, Henry led Synthetic Futures, the first initiative dedicated to ethical generative AI and metaverse technologies, bringing together over 50 industry-leading organizations. Henry presented the BBC documentary series, The Future Will be Synthesised.

“Having worked in this space for seven years, really since the inception of DeepFakes in late 2017, for some time, it was possible with just a few hours a day to really be on top of the key kind of technical developments. It's now truly global. AI-generated media have really exploded, particularly the last 18 months, but they've been bubbling under the surface for some time in various different use cases. The disinformation and deepfakes in the political sphere really matches some of the fears held five, six years ago, but at the time were more speculative. The fears around how deepfakes could be used in propaganda efforts, in attempts to destabilize democratic processes, to try and influence elections have really kind of reached a fever pitch Up until this year, I've always really said, “Well, look, we've got some fairly narrow examples of deepfakes and AI-generated content being deployed, but it's nowhere near on the scale or the effectiveness required to actually have that kind of massive impact.” This year, it's no longer a question of are deepfakes going to be used, it's now how effective are they actually going to be? I'm worried. I think a lot of the discourse around gen AI and so on is very much you're either an AI zoomer or an AI doomer, right? But for me, I don't think we need to have this kind of mutually exclusive attitude. I think we can kind of look at different use cases. There are really powerful and quite amazing use cases, but those very same baseline technologies can be weaponized if they're not developed responsibly with the appropriate safety measures, guardrails, and understanding from people using and developing them. So it is really about that balancing act for me. And a lot of my research over the years has been focused on mapping the evolution of AI generated content as a malicious tool.”
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