Can Deep Fakes Destroy America?

Join us this Sunday, either in person or online, as we watch and discuss two videos on the dangers of AI-generated "deep fake" videos.

In the first video, When AI can fake reality, who can you trust?, Sam Gregory warns us that we're fast approaching a world where widespread, hyper-realistic deepfakes lead us to dismiss reality. What happens to democracy when we can't trust what we see? Sam presents three key steps to protecting our ability to distinguish human from synthetic and explains why fortifying our perception of truth is crucial to our AI-infused future.

A technologist and committed activist for human rights, Sam has served on the Technology Advisory Board of the International Criminal Court, co-chaired the Partnership on AI’s Expert Group on AI and the Media and led the Threats and Harms Taskforce of a leading coalition to develop standards for media provenance. He's testified on AI and deepfakes before the US Congress and to the National AI Advisory Council, written for WIRED, The Hill and a range of academic journals and is frequently interviewed by major media. You can preview this 12-minute video, made in November 2023, at https://www.ted.com/talks/sam_gregory_when_ai_can_fake_reality_who_can_you_trust.

The second, US Civil War in 2025 (It's Closer Than You Think) is an animated video from The Infographics Show that illustrates the fictional collapse of the United States due to an expert AI generated, perfectly timed fake video. The Union ends, not with a bang, but an upload. Watch now to find out what could cause the next US civil war and consider how it could be avoided.

The Infographics Show focuses on making animated motion infographic videos, made in a fun and entertaining way. You can preview this 22-minute video, made in August 2025, at https://youtu.be/rdGsP7oNFDo.
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If you can join us in person, please email vp@humanists.org to help us make sure we have room for you. If you have symptoms that may be COVID, kindly attend on Zoom.
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