Liar's dividend
Political tactic
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Through Political science, Emerging technologies and Artificial intelligence
History
The rise of AI and deepfake technology has increased the ability to produce highly convincing, manipulated media, making it easier to mislead viewers. In September 2023, an audio clip of Michal Šimečka, a politician from the Progressive Slovakia party, circulated online, allegedly showing him discussing election manipulation with a journalist. A YouGov poll found that 85% of respondents were "very concerned" about the spread of misleading deepfakes. Deepfakes of U.S. presidents Joe Biden and Donald Trump have also been widely circulated The "liar's dividend" has also been discussed in The New York Times in connection with AI-generated videos during the 2026 Iran war; the proliferation of such videos has led to the erroneous identification of real videos, such as one from Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as fake.
The term "liar's dividend" was coined by legal scholars Bobby Chesney and Danielle Citron to describe the phenomenon in which the existence of realistic deepfakes can make people skeptical of genuine information.
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Examples
- Tesla lawyers argued that Elon Musk's past statements about the safety of self-driving cars could not be used in court because they were alleged deepfakes.
- In the aftermath of the January 6 Capitol riots, Guy Reffitt was charged with bringing a handgun to the Capitol building. His lawyer argued that evidence against him might be AI-generated.