Deepfake AI and Mass Virtual Reality Are a Public Health Risk
A deepfake is an AI-generated simulation of a person or physical scene intended to fool people. Deepfakes use visual and voice simulation and can be passively watched on a screen or interact with people in real-time. Deepfakes are rapidly becoming indistinguishable from reality. Companies use them in commercials and films. They have brought the deceased back to life, such as a deepfake voice in a recent Andy Warhol Netflix documentary. Comedic deepfakes of Tom Cruise on Tik Tok and recreations of Elvis Presley on stage are suitable for harmless entertainment. However, the dual use of this technology for manipulative and nefarious purposes is on the rise.
Criminals have used deepfakes to steal information from unsuspecting victims. Deepfakes can be created to terrorize or mock others and make fake admissions and confessions to convince others of something untrue. Renderings of Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared in 2022. The threat arising from these examples is obvious – what if outlaw hackers or an adversarial intelligence agency use a deepfake to trigger events that lead to a nuclear war?
A new and booming technology development industry focuses on creating deepfakes and detecting deepfakes. Governments are in on it too. For example, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has been developing high-tech detection technologies, presumably to thwart the adversarial spread of disinformation and trickery that threatens national security. It seems that for every problem humans create, we need a new industry to solve it.
Soon, deepfakes will be everywhere - on television, the Internet, your smart refrigerator, and as part of virtual reality learning experiences in schools. But what about the psychological and societal consequences of pervasive deepfakes and virtual reality experiences, such as in Meta’s Metaverse? What kind of world will we be in when we cannot discern what is real from what is not?
Deepfakes and AI will also devalue the human experience and our relationships with one another. Machines now outdo the creative achievement of humans. They create impressive art, music, and literature but it is devoid of human experiences, tribulations, talent, and inspiration. Why should we, as humans, appreciate or relate to any art created by AI? AI-generated art is soulless, just like a deepfake virtual human. Our interactions with simulations will also supplant real relationships with parents, friends, colleagues, and lovers. Our memories of the real-world will not matter either, because they will be created in or revised in an unreal, virtual experience.
It seems that we are headed for a mass public health problem because of this technology. We’ve seen it with social media. Social media is not only a technology for communication and connection but a technological platform where people misrepresent reality and are manipulated by other people and by algorithms. Research studies show that social media makes people feel worse about themselves, and its use is linked to clinical depression and increases in suicidal ideation. Social media is also used for mass manipulation and control of people.
The societal impact and consequences of pervasive deepfakes and mass virtual reality use on health, happiness, and spiritual wellness are to be determined. We already have a public trust problem in the United States. The public has lost, and rightfully so, much of the trust they may have once had in public health officials, political leaders, and authorities, not to mention the dishonest mainstream media and the tech corporations that exploit citizens’ private information. Pervasive deepfakes will make manipulation more devious and commonplace than it is now.
There are solutions. As informed, engaged, and responsible citizens and members of professional communities, such as psychologists and teachers, we should support the development of standards regarding transparency and disclosure of when a simulation is a simulation. We should also support the development and wise implementation of technologies that can detect and identify deepfakes. We need more research on the psychological effects of deepfakes and virtual reality. Through public service announcements, we need to educate people about the dangers of deepfakes and virtual reality.
We may soon be dealing with a Matrix-like transhumanist nightmare of a world where the wealthy power elites live in actual existence while everyone else is manipulated and controlled in a fake one that robs them of their time, consciousness, and humanity. Not everyone will be enticed by such a virtual existence, but our children will be. Real experiences and genuine relationships are worth preserving, and we should not allow the objectives of a few to rob us of health and truth.