ABSTRACT

Deepfakes draw on algorithmic powers, machine learning and modern capabilities for processing information to allow users to insert the face, body, and visual information about a real-world person into a false setting, producing highly convincing videos that appear to be a ‘true’ record. Emerging on the scene in the past half-decade, deepfake applications have become an object of widespread social concern and calls for regulation, ostensibly to prevent electoral fraud, defamatory misuse, the pornographisation of public figures and to restore a sense of veracity to texts and communication. This paper addresses deepfakes from a cultural studies standpoint, asking what happens if we shift away from perceiving the technology as having a negative impact and, instead, appreciating it as a cultural technology constituted in widespread shifts in the cultural sense of texts, representation, play, co-creativity and pastiche. In doing so, the paper uses cultural theory to address three points: the cultivation of the deepfake in older communication practices, the ways in which it enters public debate as an object of social concern and, finally, how calls for the regulation of deepfake technologies and products misses an opportunity to reassess the cultural ethics of communication.

摘要

Deepfakes 利用算法能力、机器学习和现代信息处理能力，允许用户将真实世界人物的面部、身体和视觉信息插入到虚假环境中，从而制作出看似“真实”的极具说服力的视频记录。在过去的五年中出现的 deepfake 应用程序已成为社会广泛关注的对象，并呼吁进行监管，表面上是为了防止选举舞弊、诽谤性滥用、公众人物色情化，并恢复文本的真实感和沟通。本文从文化研究的角度探讨了深度伪造，询问如果我们不再认为该技术具有负面影响，而是，将其视为一种文化技术，在文本、再现、游戏、共同创造和模仿的文化意义的广泛变化中构成。在这样做的过程中，本文使用文化理论来解决三个问题：在旧的通信实践中对 deepfake 的培养，作为社会关注的对象进入公共辩论的方式，最后，如何呼吁对 deepfake 技术进行监管和产品错失了重新评估传播文化伦理的机会。