US military must prepare for POW concerns in the deepfake era

In previous conflicts, authoritarian regimes have attempted to exploit their American prisoners of war for propaganda gain. These efforts often took the form of video and audio recordings as well as pictures of the POWs, despite such activities being in clear violation of the Geneva Conventions. The prospect of advanced digital capabilities such as deepfakes presents a significant new tool for potential adversaries in future conflicts. The American military must prepare for the prospect of these new technologies being used against their POWs in future conflicts.

Deepfake is the technique to manipulate video and audio to make it appear in a video that the person says or does something they never said or did. The technique utilizes preexisting audio and video of the target to create a video (potentially even a real-time, live video feed) where another person is controlling what is said by the deepfake subject, duplicating the targeted individual’s face, features, speech and vocal distinction. The end product is often not only plausible, but it can also be highly believable.