The Epistemic Threat of Deepfakes
Open accessAbstract
Deepfakes are realistic videos created using new machine learning techniques rather than traditional photographic means. They tend to depict people saying and doing things that they did not actually say or do. In the news media and the blogosphere, the worry has been raised that, as a result of deepfakes, we are heading toward an “infopocalypse” where we cannot tell what is real from what is not. Several philosophers (e.g., Deborah Johnson, Luciano Floridi, Regina Rini) have now issued similar warnings. In this paper, I offer an analysis of why deepfakes are such a serious threat to knowledge. Utilizing the account of information carrying recently developed by Brian Skyrms (2010), I argue that deepfakes reduce the amount of information that videos carry to viewers. I conclude by drawing some implications of this analysis for addressing the epistemic threat of deepfakes.
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Deepfakes pose a significant threat to the trustworthiness of the information we consume-or even 'reality'.
“There are concerns that deepfakes pose a signi fi cant threat to the trustworthiness of the information we consume -or even ' reality ' so to speak [12].”
From Human Performance in Deepfake Detection: A Systematic Review (2025) · cites this paper as [12]
Audiovisual content is met with credulity as videos are accepted almost axiomatically as accurate depictions of reality by journalists, politicians, jurisprudence, and everyday citizens.
“Audiovisual content is met with credulity as videos are accepted almost axiomatically as accurate depictions of reality by journalists, politicians, jurisprudence, and everyday citizens (Farish, 2020;Fallis, 2021;Hancock & Bailenson, 2021).”
From The detection of political deepfakes (2022) · cites this paper as Fallis, 2021
Deepfakes pose significant problems across various domains, such as misinformation, political manipulation, propaganda, reputational damage, and fraud.
“Deepfakes can be used for entertainment, education, and research; however, they pose a range of significant problems across various domains, such as misinformation, political manipulation, propaganda, reputational damage, and fraud.”
From Deepfake Attacks: Generation, Detection, Datasets, Challenges, and Research Directions (2023) · cites this paper as [3]
Deepfakes can be employed as tools for political manipulation, to influence elections, and to destabilize public trust in political institutions.
“Deepfakes can also be employed as tools for political manipulation, influence elections, and destabilize public trust in political institutions [3,4].”
From Deepfake Attacks: Generation, Detection, Datasets, Challenges, and Research Directions (2023) · cites this paper as [3]
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- Authors
- Fallis, D.
- Affiliations
- Northeastern University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Fallis, Don
- ORCID
- Fallis, Don
- Venue
- Philosophy & Technology
- Published
- 2020-08-06
- Volume
- 34
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 623-643
- ISSN
- 2210-5433 (ISSN-L)
- 2210-5441
- PMC
- PMC7406872
- OpenAlex
- W3047499317
- Semantic Scholar
- bfc9dcfb96e1fd7d11cf48ba338cb9083529db14
- Cited by
- 266
- References
- 39
- Citations by year
- 2026: 59 · 2025: 56 · 2024: 55 · 2023: 48 · 2022: 33 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 2
- FWCI
- 132.37
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Philosophy & Technology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Colorado State University
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Epistemology, Ethics, and Metaphysics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Misinformation and Its Impacts
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Science Applications › Digital Media and Philosophy
- Keywords
- deepfakes, Brian Skyrms, fake news, video authenticity, knowledge, philosophy of information
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