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Seminar

Ethics, Anonymity & Deep Fakes: A Conversation

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PT

  • Computer-Generated Headshot of a Quechua Woman, modelled with the features of Violeta Ayala. The hairstyle is asymmetrical with an undercut on one side and longer black hair on the other. She wears mismatched round earrings, a black elastic necklace, and a black jacket.
    Violeta Ayala (The Jaguaress), Speaker
  • Headshot of a 30 year old White woman with light brown hair, wearing red earrings.
    Sophie Compton, Speaker
  • Headshot of a smiling caucasian male in late 20s, with blonde medium-length hair, wearing a blue jacket against a black backdrop.
    Reuben Hamlyn, Speaker
  • Headshot of an adult woman, long hair, wearing an aubergine colour jacket.
    Raquel Vazquez Llorente, Speaker
  • Headshot of a 40-year-old white male with short brown hair, wearing a tweed jacket and white shirt
    Joshua Glick, Moderator

What are the ethics of using Deep Fakes to anonymize sources in non-fiction media? What are the layers of consent that require consideration? What are the futures, the risks, and the opportunities of these types of manipulations? What strategies can non-fiction media makers (journalists, documentarians, and artists) implement to navigate the complex landscape of these technologies?

Join our stellar panel as we consider the above questions and more!

In the meantime, below are links to some of our panelists' work for background reading.

Event Participants

    Computer-Generated Headshot of a Quechua Woman, modelled with the features of Violeta Ayala. The hairstyle is asymmetrical with an undercut on one side and longer black hair on the other. She wears mismatched round earrings, a black elastic necklace, and a black jacket.

    Violeta Ayala (The Jaguaress)

    Violeta Ayala is a multifaceted filmmaker, creative technologist, and artist. In 2020, she became the first Quechua member of the Oscars. Co-founding unitednotions.film and koa.xyz, she has driven innovative projects like Prison X (2021), an interactive VR animation premiered at Sundance and Cannes XR, showcased at renowned galleries globally. Her artistic work, "Las Awichas" (grandmothers in Aymara), debuted in 2022 at Bolivia's El Martadero gallery, later selected for the GLoW3 exhibition at King's College London in 2024, melding traditional art with AR. Her documentaries, including La Lucha (2023), Cocaine Prison (2017), The Fight (2017), The Bolivian Case (2015), and Stolen (2009), premiered at major festivals like Sundance and Toronto, and streamed on PBS and Amazon Prime. In 2023, she received the XR Innovation Award at the Games For Change for 'Weaving Worlds,' exhibiting her rapid ideation. Additionally, in 2023, Violeta co-designed Expylab, securing Meta’s Metaverse Community Grant. Currently, she's developing Feminist AI.

    Headshot of a 30 year old White woman with light brown hair, wearing red earrings.

    Sophie Compton

    Sophie Compton is a SXSW Award Winning director/producer who tells women’s stories of injustice. Her work is impact driven, and she develops platforms to amplify survivor voices alongside each creative piece. Her projects have been supported by Sundance, International Documentary Association, Impact Partners, Arts Council England. Her debut feature ANOTHER BODY follows a student's search for justice after she discovers deepfake pornography of herself online. It screened at SXSW, Hot Docs, IDFA, Munich, New/Next, Mill Valley, Doc Edge, DMZ and other festivals, winning Jury and Audience Awards. Acquired by Utopia, Modern Films, BBC Storyville, CBC Gem it was released theatrically in multiple markets. She co-founded the Fringe First-winning production company Power Play, producing/directing work at Tate Modern, V&A, Copeland Gallery, Cockpit. For her impact projects she has worked with The White House, international NGOs and grassroots organisations to develop new legislation and policy.

    Headshot of a smiling caucasian male in late 20s, with blonde medium-length hair, wearing a blue jacket against a black backdrop.

    Reuben Hamlyn

    Reuben Hamlyn is a New York-based writer/director and editor from London. He recently completed his first feature as a director, ANOTHER BODY, a documentary that follows a deepfake abuse survivor’s pursuit of answers & justice. ANOTHER BODY was selected to participate in the Sundance Institute's Catalyst lab and Hot Docs Dealmaker. It was awarded the International Documentary Association's Enterprise Grant and is supported by Impact Partners. It premiered in competition at SXSW in March 2023, where it was awarded the Special Jury Prize. ANOTHER BODY will be released in theatres by Utopia in the US, Modern Film in the UK and LevelFilm in Canada in the autumn of 2023. Reuben's previous short film, ROGER, was commissioned by the BFI and BBC Arts to open their BORN DIGITAL season in 2019. ROGER aired on BBC Four; it was noted as a 'highlight' of the programme by the Guardian and won multiple awards.

    Headshot of an adult woman, long hair, wearing an aubergine colour jacket.

    Raquel Vazquez Llorente

    Head of Law and Policy, Technology Threats and Opportunities, WITNESS. Raquel is a lawyer specialized in how technology and online content can support communities seeking justice and accountability for human rights abuses. At WITNESS, she leads a team that engages with emerging technologies that have the potential to enhance or undermine our trust on audiovisual media. Her current work focuses on how generative AI and synthetic media intersect with mis- and disinformation and rising authoritarianism, and impact the work of human rights and democracy defenders globally. Prior to WITNESS, Raquel helped build eyeWitness, an award-winning organization that developed technology to authenticate visual evidence for courts. In her role, she led strategic partnerships with technologists, litigation networks and activists that contributed to the documentation and investigation of human rights abuses, bringing victim-centered justice to communities affected by violence. Raquel is part of the 2020 class of the Obama Foundation Europe Leaders.

    Headshot of a 40-year-old white male with short brown hair, wearing a tweed jacket and white shirt

    Joshua Glick

    Joshua Glick is Visiting Associate Professor of Film and Electronic Arts at Bard College. Dr. Glick’s research and teaching are focused on the comparative histories of film, television, and radio; nonfiction media; race and representation; and the civic uses of emerging technology. He is the author of Los Angeles Documentary and the Production of Public History (University of California Press, 2018). As a Fellow at MIT’s Open Documentary Lab, and in collaboration with colleagues at the  Center for Advanced Virtuality, he designed the online curriculum, Media Literacy in the Age of Deepfakes. Glick also recently co-curated an exhibition at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York: Deepfake: Unstable Evidence on Screen. His current book project explores how the rising investment in nonfiction on both the left and right of the political spectrum over the last thirty years has transformed the relationship between Hollywood, Silicon Valley, and Washington, D.C.