A new breed of artificially generated fake images, videos and audio clips is spreading across the internet – content that anyone with an internet connection can create. And some of these deepfakes are now so convincing that even experts are struggling to distinguish between what’s real and what’s been created using artificial intelligence. In a new series, Hannah Murphy, the FT’s San Francisco-based technology reporter, examines the potential of deepfakes to cause chaos, asks how worried we should be and what’s being done to combat their spread.

In the first part of this two-part series, she hears from Kimberly Ton Mai, AI researcher at University College London, Hany Farid, digital forensics expert at the University of California at Berkeley, and Paul Carpenter, magician and hypnotist.

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Would you like more?

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The FT view: Deepfakes and disinformation

The danger of deepfakes is different than you think

Clips: Fox News, AP, @mentallyhyp TikTok, The Telegraph, The Guardian, France 24 English, Sky News

This season of Tech Tonic is presented by Hannah Murphy. Producer is Persis Love. Executive producer is Edwin Lane. Executive producer is Manuela Saragosa. Additional production assistance: Josh Gabert-Doyon. Sound design: Breen Turner and Samantha Giovinco. Original music: Metaphor Music. The FT’s head of audio is Cheryl Brumley.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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