FYI: My own new essay "Gavin Newsom Battles Deepfake Parrots: Governor champions the interests of Californians incapable of recognizing humor" https://graboyes.substack.com/p/gavin-newsom-battles-deepfake-parrots. You may well know that in 1903, Pennsylvania Governor Samuel Pennypacker was incensed over being caricatured as a parrot. He signed legislation barring cartoonists from portraying politicians as animals. So cartoonists relentlessly caricatured him and his cronies as vegetables and other inanimate objects. Pennypacker had said that journals carrying such cartoons were a "terror to the household, a detriment to the public service and an impediment to the courts of justice."
Absolutely. Invasion of privacy and publicity torts/statutes, as well as IP rights. The government is using AI as an excuse to control and censor private speech it dislikes.
I might write in Bunbun next month. I am grateful to FIRE for protecting free speech and still have difficulty processing how widespread the attacks on expression have become in liberal democracies. Where did our shared values go? The case of Mr. Hopkins in Germany is frightening. He is not being prosecuted for using a swastika, but persecuted for challenging authority. Is it necessary to state the obvious that the German authorities are undermining the values that they purport to defend?
I suppose that I should not be surprised though. Those who gain power use the same tools to keep it. If one wants to know who is the greatest threat to liberty, just look for who is holding the reins of power. Which is why I might have to vote for Bunbun over Governor Walz.
FYI: My own new essay "Gavin Newsom Battles Deepfake Parrots: Governor champions the interests of Californians incapable of recognizing humor" https://graboyes.substack.com/p/gavin-newsom-battles-deepfake-parrots. You may well know that in 1903, Pennsylvania Governor Samuel Pennypacker was incensed over being caricatured as a parrot. He signed legislation barring cartoonists from portraying politicians as animals. So cartoonists relentlessly caricatured him and his cronies as vegetables and other inanimate objects. Pennypacker had said that journals carrying such cartoons were a "terror to the household, a detriment to the public service and an impediment to the courts of justice."
Could deceptive deep fakes be prosecuted with existing laws on libel or slander?
Absolutely. Invasion of privacy and publicity torts/statutes, as well as IP rights. The government is using AI as an excuse to control and censor private speech it dislikes.
Oh yes, potentially. I also think there’s a lot of possibility for “False light” defamation.
I might write in Bunbun next month. I am grateful to FIRE for protecting free speech and still have difficulty processing how widespread the attacks on expression have become in liberal democracies. Where did our shared values go? The case of Mr. Hopkins in Germany is frightening. He is not being prosecuted for using a swastika, but persecuted for challenging authority. Is it necessary to state the obvious that the German authorities are undermining the values that they purport to defend?
I suppose that I should not be surprised though. Those who gain power use the same tools to keep it. If one wants to know who is the greatest threat to liberty, just look for who is holding the reins of power. Which is why I might have to vote for Bunbun over Governor Walz.