The Cost of Deepfakes Goes Beyond Stolen Millions of Dollars

Preserving human existence necessitates mitigating the adverse impacts of deepfakes.

The film industry is witnessing a revolution with deepfake technology. Filmmakers have been leveraging deepfakes in recent years to unlock new realms of creativity and storytelling, including resurrecting late actors, creating hyper-realistic visual effects, and integrating digital doubles seamlessly. For instance, deepfakes were employed to digitally rejuvenate Robert DeNiro in The Irishman and to create a virtual twin of Paul Walker in Fast & Furious 7.

However, the implications of deepfakes extend beyond the film industry’s impressive applications of the technology. A recent case involved a Hong Kong company falling prey to a scam, losing $25.6 million due to deepfake technology. The fraudsters used AI to create a multi-participant video call where all participants, except the unsuspecting victim, were digital replicas of actual employees. The impersonated chief financial officer then directed the victim to transfer funds, resulting in a significant monetary loss.

Deepfake technology has been instrumental in numerous corporate frauds. In 2021, fraudsters used deepfake to mimic the voice of an executive from a Japanese company, deceiving a manager into transferring $35 million to them.