Will Deepfakes Wreck All Human Knowledge?

Technochauvinism and the Epistemic Apocalypse

How worried should we be about deepfakes? Some scholars are arguing that deepfakes will cause an epistemic apocalypse. Why think that? Well, video evidence has historically been the bedrock evidence, the final word in inquiry. Sure, there have been fakes before, but nothing so powerful as these new deepfakes—and these are just the beginning! Imagine a few years down the line: the deepfake technology will be more powerful and this more powerful tech will certainly be more widely accessible.

In his recent paper, “Deepfakes and the Epistemic Apocalypse”, Dr. Joshua Habgood-Coote lays out three key claims at the center of the apocalypse narrative:

1.     Deepfakes will have terrible effects on our socio-epistemic practices.

2.     Deepfakes are historically unprecedented.

3.     The solutions to deepfakes are technological.

Habgood-Coote spends the rest of his paper arguing against each of these claims, concluding instead that the Epistemic Apocalypse narrative has prompted the wrong kinds of questions which invite the wrong kinds of answers, technochauvinist answers. According to Habgood-Coote, ‘technochauvinism’ involves three tendencies:

Technochauvinism =

(i) Techno-solutionism: a repackaging of social problems as technological problems.

(ii) Techno-optimism: technological systems can perform complex tasks.

(iii) Techno-fixation: ignoring or underplaying the importance of the designers, operators, and maintainers of technological systems.

Habgood-Coote then notes the ways in which technochauvinists translate the potential problems of deepfakes from social issues to tech issues which require tech solutions. He’s not convinced and makes some compelling arguments against a technochauvinist gloss on deepfakes and the epistemic apocalypse. Instead, Habgood-Coote argues that the true problems behind deepfakes are still social problems and will thus require social solutions.

Check out my podcast episode Dr. Habgood-Coote on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts (or your other favorite podcatcher) to hear his arguments in his own words. We also go in deep on the epistemology of photographs, and the difference between knowledge from testimony and knowledge from perception. It’s a fantastic episode: