- Deepfake crisis
According to a survey of the Alan Turing Institute, more than a 90% of the people participating in the study are very concerned or somewhat concerned about the spread of deepfakes. This overwhelming worry is not unreasonable, there are a lot of examples about deepfake scams causing real trouble to lots of people.
In this sense, the World Bank reports that deepfake fraud has surged by 900% in recent years and losses caused by generative AI can reach $40 billion by 2027. For instance, in 2024, according to Hong Kong police, a fraud using deepfake technology to pose as a multinational’s chief financial officer in a video conference call, deceived a finance worker of the firm to pay $25 million to fraudsters.
On the other hand, it is true that the percentage of people suffering deepfakes is still low. According to the above-mentioned study of the Alan Turing Institute, only a 5,7% of the responders was exposed to deepfakes. Nevertheless, only an 8% of the surveyed people used deepfake tools and most of the respondents were not confident about their ability to detect deepfakes. So that, those ones exposed to deepfakes will be in real risk to be deceived.
- Fake news crisis
As stated in the previous point, there are good reasons to be worried about deepfakes. The situation regarding fake news can be considered even worse.
The World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2025, shows that the overall trust in news remains as low as a 40%. So, there is a first damage of fake news, the plunge of the public trust in the media. But in addition to this negative fact, the study shows, at least, two additional negative outcomes:
- Firstly, an increase of the use of the social networks as a source of information. Being such social entertainment platforms a vehicle not suitable for information and more exposed to the spread of fake news than traditional sources of information, such growth in its use means bad news as well as fake news.
- Secondly, a growing volume of AI-generated content means also an increase of misinformation and disinformation.
Taking into account the previous facts it is not surprising that most of us have become used to images created with AI. And it is even less surprising that these images are almost always disturbing. Since the beginning of the humanity bad news have always been most interesting, have run faster than the good ones.
- Sometimes reality surpasses fiction
But what about the real reality, is it better than the one created with AI?
It is true that the number of wars in the world has decreased from a rate of six per year in the 1950s to one per year in the 2000s, and the number of fatalities decreased from 240 reported deaths per million to less than 10 in the same period. Nevertheless, it is also true that, according to the New York Times, during the past 3,400 years, humans have been entirely at peace only for 268 of them, just an 8%. In other words, reality is such an unlimited source of bad news that does not need to be increased by AI.
Unfortunately, the previous images, as far as I know, are real photos taken in Ukraine, Gaza and Hiroshima.
Written by José Torija Martí – Legal Counsel – Herta Security, S.L. – legal@hertasecurity.com