| dc.description.abstract | While it is advisable to be cautious in the face of new technological developments, aggressive negativity towards a piece of technology can cause fear and distrust in the technology. This is the case for deepfakes, which have received negative press since their first appearance in media in 2017. Published media articles often state the potential risks of deepfakes in ways that make the technology seem like it can only be used for negative purposes without analyzing the risks using risk analysis methods. In this thesis, I use the SWOT analysis technique to list the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of deepfakes. I then analyze the uses of deepfakes presented by the opportunities and threats using the FMEA method to score the severity of the consequences, probability of use, and likelihood of detection. These scores are then used to calculate the expected risk of the uses of deepfakes. Results show that deepfaked pornography poses the most severe risk, and the uses of deepfakes in entertainment the least risk. Overall, there is a nonnegligible risk posed by deepfakes. This analysis should open the conversation of deepfakes to more analytical and cautious rather than overtly negative views. | |
