A deepfake is the worst kind of character assassination if you are innocent. A video that uses the timbre and nuance and tone of your voice, that uses your lips and cheeks and laugh lines to convey a message that is the opposite of anything you would choose for yourself is a deep violence, not least because once that video is out in the world, you have to live in uncertainty. . . .
Crime novels have always asked how we know what happened, who we should believe, and what counts as evidence. And new technology has always brought opportunity and challenge to fictional and real-life policing. If the technology of deep-fakery is different, I think it is because it strikes at something that feels both personal and precious. Our trust in our own judgement, in our eyes and our ears. In each other.
—Dervla McTiernan, author of Three Reasons for Revenge
