Impact on Legal Proceedings

The emerging threat of deepfakes casts a novel danger over criminal trials where real recordings may not be trusted, and fake recordings can never be disproven with such ease. According to the International Review of Law and Jurisprudence (n.d.), current rules of evidence, including those relating to authentication of digital materials, will fail in the face of AI-enhanced tampering. Forensic scientists traditionally use digital metadata, eye witnessed confirmation, or obvious disjuncts to authenticate; however, the more professional-grade digital manipulation becomes, the more limited these means of authentication are. Furthermore, the risk is elevated due to institutional weaknesses in digital evidence acquisition and maintenance, where altered files are admitted into evidence and no one is the wiser.