The Deepfake Dialogues

Ashmita Rajmohan

The Deepfake Dialogues is a weekly podcast exploring how AI-generated media is reshaping the way we create, communicate, and trust. From synthetic music to political disinformation, from voice cloning for accessibility to non-consensual imagery, we examine the full spectrum: who's building this technology, how it's being used, and what it means for the future. New episodes every Wednesday. Follow now. thedeepfakedialogues.substack.com

  1. The States vs. Deepfakes | A Look at U.S. State Deepfake Laws

    May 20

    The States vs. Deepfakes | A Look at U.S. State Deepfake Laws

    While Congress stalls, state legislatures have quietly become the front line in the fight against deepfakes. This episode features Ilana Beller, who leads Public Citizen’s state legislative work on AI and has helped move model legislation through more than 40 states, focused on the two areas moving fastest: non-consensual intimate deepfakes and election deepfakes. We discuss: * What the Take It Down Act accomplished and left on the table, including the missing private right of action * How intimate deepfake laws work, and why circulation is easier to prosecute than creation * What separates a strong law from a weak one: enforcement and a high bar for consent * App-level bans on nudification tools and barring platforms from advertising them * How election deepfake laws use labeling and pre-election windows while carving out satire and parody * Why these bills draw rare bipartisan support, and the federal moratorium threatening to preempt them This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thedeepfakedialogues.substack.com

    37 min
  2. Deepfakes in Local Politics: How a York Councillor Was Targeted

    May 13

    Deepfakes in Local Politics: How a York Councillor Was Targeted

    What happens when a local councillor becomes the target of a deepfake smear campaign? In March 2026, a deepfake video of Cllr Pete Kilbane, Labour Deputy Leader of City of York Council, began circulating online. In the clip, his digitally fabricated likeness appeared to hand wads of cash to balaclava-clad men, as if paying them to remove flags. The video was fake. The campaign of intimidation surrounding it was not. In this episode, Pete walks through what happened in York after St George’s Cross and Union flags began appearing on lampposts across the city as part of Operation Raise the Colours. Hope Not Hate and other public reporting have linked the movement to figures associated with Tommy Robinson and the far-right party Britain First. We discuss: * How the flag campaign played out in York and why the politics behind it matter * The deepfake video of Pete, how his colleagues first found out, and why “it’s just satire” does not capture the harm * The threats, doxxing, and intimidation faced by council staff and contractors * What the Online Safety Act can and cannot do when fake content spreads through closed groups * Pete’s concerns about the movement’s links to MAGA and the American far right * How synthetic media is being weaponised to erode trust in local democracy * How the council responded to this incident This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thedeepfakedialogues.substack.com

    32 min
  3. Deepfake Nudes in Schools: When AI-Enabled Abuse Hits the Classroom

    May 6

    Deepfake Nudes in Schools: When AI-Enabled Abuse Hits the Classroom

    Content note: This episode discusses AI-generated child sexual abuse material, non-consensual intimate imagery, sextortion, and sexual abuse. AI-powered “nudify” apps are increasingly being used by students to create deepfake sexual images of classmates, but most schools still do not have clear policies for prevention, reporting, discipline, or victim support. Riana Pfefferkorn, a policy fellow at Stanford HAI, joins DeepFake Dialogues to discuss her policy brief, Addressing AI-Generated Child Sexual Abuse Material: Opportunities for Educational Policy, and what schools, lawmakers, platforms, and communities need to understand about how this is actually playing out. Read the policy brief here: https://hai.stanford.edu/policy/addressing-ai-generated-child-sexual-abuse-material-opportunities-for-educational-policy We discuss: * The difference between fully synthetic AI-CSAM and images depicting real, identifiable children * The lasting harm to victims, and why it often doesn’t end at graduation * How unprepared school responses can make that harm worse * What schools should have in place before an incident happens * Whether student offenders should face criminal punishment or behavioural intervention * The role of “nudify” app bans, platform liability, and payment processors * Grok, xAI, and what happens when mainstream AI tools enable sexualised image abuse * Why prevention has to include consent, dignity, privacy, and digital citizenship This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thedeepfakedialogues.substack.com

    1h 3m
  4. When AI Fakes Go Wild: Synthetic Media and Wildlife Conservation

    Apr 8

    When AI Fakes Go Wild: Synthetic Media and Wildlife Conservation

    AI-generated wildlife videos are flooding social media, and the consequences go far beyond misleading content. Dana Wilson of Wildlife SOS, an Indian nonprofit running 13 rescue centers and emergency hotlines across the country, explains how synthetic animal videos are distorting public understanding of wildlife behavior, putting both people and animals at risk. We discuss: * How Wildlife SOS’s real rescue footage has been stolen and spliced with AI-generated endings * The public safety threat of videos that make dangerous predators look friendly and approachable * AI-generated attack videos stoking fear and calls for culling in communities that coexist with wildlife * Why even “harmless” AI-generated animal content erodes trust in genuine conservation storytelling * How deepfake technology could make these problems far worse as synthetic video becomes harder to detect * How Wildlife SOS is setting internal AI policies to protect the integrity of their work * What creators and platforms should consider before posting AI-generated wildlife content Learn more about Wildlife SOS at wildlifesos.org and watch real rescue videos on their YouTube channel. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thedeepfakedialogues.substack.com

    23 min
  5. Could a Deepfake Start a Nuclear War?

    Feb 11

    Could a Deepfake Start a Nuclear War?

    In this episode, I’m joined by Erin D. Dumbacher, Stanton Nuclear Security Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, to discuss her recent Foreign Affairs article “How Deepfakes Could Lead to Doomsday.” We explore how deepfakes and AI hallucinations could infiltrate the systems designed to prevent nuclear catastrophe — and why the story of Stanislav Petrov, a Soviet officer who in 1983 chose not to trust his screen when it told him American nukes were incoming, matters more now than ever. We also dig into the Pentagon’s rush to integrate AI across the Department of Defense, why AI trained on nuclear threats has almost no real data to learn from, and why the most dangerous scenario isn’t a machine launching a weapon — it’s bad information cascading through a decision-making chain where the president has minutes, not hours, to act. We discuss: * Deepfakes of Zelensky and Putin during the Ukraine war — and what could have gone differently * The Pentagon’s GenAI.mil rollout and the risks of moving too fast * AI hallucinations vs. social media deepfakes — two distinct threats to nuclear stability * The data problem: training AI when we’ve only had two nuclear attacks in history * How misinformation could trigger cascading crises under compressed nuclear timelines * Reforms to U.S. nuclear launch authority in an era where information can’t be taken at face value This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thedeepfakedialogues.substack.com

    32 min
  6. The Environmental Cost of Generative AI

    Feb 4

    The Environmental Cost of Generative AI

    We spend a lot of time on this podcast talking about what AI does to information: deepfakes, synthetic media, manipulated reality. But there’s a physical cost to all of it that rarely gets discussed: water. Every AI-generated image, every deepfake video, every ChatGPT query runs on servers that need millions of litres of fresh water to stay cool. And those data centers are increasingly being built in regions already facing drought and water stress. Dr. Kevin Grecksch is Associate Professor of Water and Environmental Governance at the University of Oxford, where he directs the MSc in Water Science, Policy and Management. His research focuses on who gets water, who controls it, and what happens when there isn’t enough. In this episode, he helps us understand the hidden environmental footprint of the AI tools we discuss every week on this show, and what smarter governance could look like. We discuss: * The physical infrastructure behind AI-generated content, and why it needs so much water * Why data centers are being built in drought-prone regions like Spain and the American Southwest * What “water positive by 2030” actually means (Kevin doesn’t hold back) * The irony of AI as climate solution while worsening water stress * Integrative planning: circular systems, waste heat reuse, and localized solutions * What those of us using generative AI should keep in mind This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thedeepfakedialogues.substack.com

    25 min
  7. Could Kim Jong-un Rule Forever? Deepfakes and the "Synthetic Sovereign"

    Jan 28

    Could Kim Jong-un Rule Forever? Deepfakes and the "Synthetic Sovereign"

    What happens when a dictator dies but deepfake technology keeps him in power? Matthew Fecteau, a US Army Information Operations Officer and PhD researcher at King’s College London, recently coined the term “synthetic sovereign” in The Diplomat. His hypothesis: North Korea could use deepfake technology to keep Kim Jong-un ruling from beyond the grave. We discuss: * Why North Korea may be the only country that could pull this off * Whether enough footage of Kim already exists to make this technically feasible * Who would orchestrate a digital puppet regime and their incentives * The “liar’s dividend” and how Pyongyang could dismiss real evidence of Kim’s death as foreign disinformation * What happens when a synthetic Kim appears to authorize a nuclear strike * Why this scenario might paradoxically serve Western stability interests Read Matthew’s article here This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thedeepfakedialogues.substack.com

    17 min
  8. An AI-Faked Text Got Her Arrested. Now She's Fighting for Legal Reform.

    Jan 21

    An AI-Faked Text Got Her Arrested. Now She's Fighting for Legal Reform.

    What happens when a single AI-faked text “receipt” can land you in jail? Melissa Sims, a Florida nurse, says she was arrested for allegedly violating a no-contact order after her ex-boyfriend used an AI-enabled fake text generator to create convincing “evidence.” Despite phone records later indicating no text was sent or received, prosecutors pursued the case for months—costing her nursing license, over $300,000, and months of her life. The no-contact charge was ultimately dropped, and she was later found not guilty on the original domestic violence charge. Now she’s advocating for Melissa’s Law: legislation that would require metadata verification of digital evidence before arrests and create penalties for fabricating AI-generated/synthetic evidence. We discuss: * How AI-enabled text generators can create realistic “receipts” * Why police and prosecutors often don’t authenticate digital evidence * The technical detail that helped expose the fabrication (SMS vs iMessage) * What Melissa’s Law would change in criminal evidence handling * Why laws haven’t kept pace with synthetic media * Why her ex has faced no consequences This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thedeepfakedialogues.substack.com

    22 min
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About

The Deepfake Dialogues is a weekly podcast exploring how AI-generated media is reshaping the way we create, communicate, and trust. From synthetic music to political disinformation, from voice cloning for accessibility to non-consensual imagery, we examine the full spectrum: who's building this technology, how it's being used, and what it means for the future. New episodes every Wednesday. Follow now. thedeepfakedialogues.substack.com

Information

  • Creator
    Ashmita Rajmohan
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    15
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Ashmita Rajmohan
  • Show Website
    The Deepfake Dialogues