While artificial intelligence provides convenience in many aspects of our lives, it also reveals a dark side: the production of fake content. Especially in polarized political environments, fake news and information generated by artificial intelligence can easily manipulate public perception. Deepfake videos, which are attention-grabbing in their realism, threaten voter preferences, political polarization, and ultimately the functioning of democracy.
Most recently, the absence of Prince William's wife, Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton, from the public eye since her abdominal surgery in January has sparked many conspiracy theories. On March 23, the Duchess of Cambridge announced in a video released by Kensington Palace that she was undergoing cancer treatment. However, new conspiracy theories have emerged suggesting that the explanation video on the internet could be "an AI-assisted deepfake."
Irem Sezer, Secretary General of the Artificial Intelligence Policies Association, provided evaluations to Elips News' Sümeyye Aksu regarding these conspiracy theories. Remarking that people always produce and enjoy conspiracy theories about the royal family, Sezer said, "The Kate Middleton issue is also a topic that greatly attracts people's attention because it is associated with the royal family. The leading news
agencies withdrew the photo Kate Middleton shared on British Mother's Day under the pretext that it was shared to calm down news about Kate's post-surgery health and because the photo was digitally altered, shaping future comments on this video. Many comments were made on the video she shared about her health due to this reason as well."
"Decreasing trust in the media"
Sezer, who mentioned comments such as "the flowers in the background of the published video not moving" and "the disappearance of the ring in Kate Middleton's hand in the slowed-down version of the video," said, "Of course, none of these comments have been conclusively confirmed. Manipulations in videos and photos have actually been present for years. Even a few years ago, when artificial intelligence was not so advanced, comments were made about an American politician Nancy Pelosi's video, just by slowing it down and serving it on social media, suggesting that Nancy Pelosi might be drunk. Of course, this situation and people producing conspiracy theories about videos and images can be counted as factors that lead to a decrease in trust in media and communication channels."
"Experts need to be trained"
Sezer emphasized that with the development of artificial intelligence technologies, people's trust in content and what they see has begun to decrease and continues to decrease. She stated, "I believe this could worsen in the future. Although it may not be a perfect solution, I think training experts on the subject is the biggest step towards solving the problems. I can say that in the coming years, we will work with many experts responsible for distinguishing content such as videos or images produced with Deepfake and artificial intelligence tools."
