“F” Is For FAKE

In this episode, we continue our How Technology Ruined Your Life mini-series with "F" Is For FAKE, exploring how artificial intelligence is transforming not only what we see online, but what we believe to be true.

From convincing deepfake videos and cloned voices to AI-generated news, fake witnesses, and synthetic social media content, we examine how generative AI is eroding our ability to distinguish reality from fabrication. As humans become increasingly unable to reliably identify AI-generated media, what happens when evidence itself can no longer be trusted?

Drawing on the latest research into deepfakes, misinformation, disinformation, and content authenticity, we explore how synthetic media is reshaping cybersecurity, politics, journalism, and society. We discuss why humans are now little better than chance at spotting AI-generated content, the limitations of current verification standards such as C2PA, and why the future of trust may depend less on detecting fakes than proving what is real.

We also examine the growing cybersecurity implications of AI-generated deception, from multimillion-dollar CEO impersonation scams and voice cloning attacks to insider threats, identity fraud, authentication failures, and the growing challenge of securing organisations in a world where seeing is no longer believing. If persuasion was the first battlefield of AI, synthetic reality may be the next.

In This Episode, We Discuss:

The Rise of Synthetic Reality: How deepfakes, AI-generated images, cloned voices, fabricated news reports, and synthetic media are changing the way we consume information, and why "seeing is believing" is rapidly becoming obsolete.

Misinformation, Disinformation & The Trust Crisis: The critical differences between misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation, how false narratives spread across social media, and why convincing fakes can continue influencing people even after they have been debunked.

Deepfakes Meet Cybersecurity: How AI-powered impersonation is accelerating social engineering attacks through CEO fraud, business email compromise, voice cloning, fake job applicants, identity spoofing, and increasingly sophisticated phishing campaigns that exploit human trust rather than technical vulnerabilities.

Can We Still Verify Reality? Why emerging content authenticity standards such as C2PA represent an important step forward, but remain imperfect, and what organisations can do today through stronger verification processes, layered authentication, Zero Trust principles, multi-person approvals, and security awareness to defend against the next generation of AI-enabled deception.

Show Notes

Special thanks to our episode sponsor, Leeds based AI Consultancy specialising in AI Ethics, Security and Transformation NorthStar Intelligence- From Ideas to Impact. AI that works for people

AI-Generated Misinformation: A Case Study on Emerging Trends in Fact-Checking Practices Across Brazil, Germany, and the United Kingdom by
Regina Cazzamatta and Aynur Sarisakaloglu

AI-Slop and Political Propaganda: The Role of AI-Generated Content in Memes and Influence Campaigns by Eduard-Claudiu Gross and Alicia J.M. Colson

AI Slop and the Information Ecosystem by Jenn Weedon et al.

As Good as A Coin Toss: Human detection of AI-generated Images, Videos, Audio and Audiovisual Stimuli by Di Cooke et al.

Verifying Provenance of Digital Media: Why the C2PA Specifications Fall Short by Enis Golaszewski et al.

Beliefs and Sharing Intentions of Human- and AI-Generated Fake News: Evidence from 27 European Countries by Adam Stefkovics and Gere Domotor

Deepfakes and the epistemic apocalypse by Joshua Habgood-Coote

How Spammers and Scammers Leverage AI-Generated Images on Facebook for Audience Growth by Renee DiResta and Josh A. Goldstein

Also, check out our sister podcast Tech Film Noir!