They're really trying to get out in front of this, aren't they?
House Intelligence Committee To Hold Open Hearing on Deepfakes and AI
On Thursday, June 13, 2019 at 9:00 am, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence will convene an open hearing on the national security challenges of artificial intelligence (AI), manipulated media, and “deepfake” technology. This is the first House hearing devoted specifically to examining deepfakes and other types of AI-generated synthetic data.
Advances in machine learning algorithms have made it cheaper and easier to create deepfakes – convincing videos where people say or do things that never happened. Such advances also support the production of fake audio, imagery, and text at scale, and these capabilities are fast becoming more accessible and widely available. Deepfakes raise profound questions about national security and democratic governance, with individuals and voters no longer able to trust their own eyes or ears when assessing the authenticity of what they see on their screens.
During this hearing, the Committee will examine the national security threats posed by AI-enabled fake content, what can be done to detect and combat it, and what role the public sector, the private sector, and society as a whole should play to counter a potentially grim, “post-truth” future.
Among other topics, the Committee will seek testimony on:
Future advancements in deepfake technology;
Detecting and tracking deepfakes;
How deepfakes could allow people to deny legitimate media;
The enduring psychological impact of deepfakes;
Counterintelligence risks;
Internet platforms’ role in policing fake content;
The difficult legal challenges raised by deepfakes; and
The appropriate role for the U.S. government.
The Committee has invited the following witnesses to attend:
Danielle Citron, Professor of Law, University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law
Jack Clark, Policy Director, OpenAI
Dr. David Doermann, Professor, SUNY Empire Innovation and Director, Artificial Intelligence Institute, University at Buffalo
Clint Watts, Distinguished Research Fellow, Foreign Policy Research Institute, and Senior Fellow, Alliance for Securing Democracy, German Marshall Fund