As a political advisor to select technology firms, Schick is at the forefront of trends emerging from the worlds of data science, machine learning and AI. In Deep Fakes and the Infocalypse, Schick tells us what we need to do to prepare and protect ourselves.
Nina Schick is a political commentator, advisor and public speaker, specialising in how technology is reshaping politics in the 21st century. Most recently, her work has seen her focusing on the evolution of disinformation, and the fallout generated by election interference in the US (and around the world) since 2016.
Nina has advised global leaders including Joe Biden and Anders Fogh Rasmussen (the former Secretary General of NATO), through her research on next-generation disinformation and AI-generated deep fakes. She has also worked at the heart of historic campaigns, including on the presidential campaign, the Brexit referendum and with Emmanuel Macron.
Half German and half Nepalese, she speaks seven languages and holds degrees from Cambridge University and University College London. She divides her time between London, Berlin and Kathmandu.
Follow @NinaDSchick on Twitter, on Goodreads, on Amazon, Visit ninaschick.org, Buy Deep Fakes and the Infocalypse
In Deep Fakes and the Infocalypse, Nina Schick warns us urgently of the impending information overload (known as the ‘Infocalypse’) and explains the dangerous political consequences of this Infocalypse, both in terms of national security and what it means for public trust in politics. Deep Fakes have been around for less than three years, to silence and for revenge and fraud. Government, business and society are completely unprepared.
Schick also unveils what it means for us as individuals, how Deep Fakes will be and are used to intimidate and to silence, for revenge and fraud, and how unprepared governments and tech companies are.
The malicious use of Deep Fakes is not only a real threat for democracy but they take the manipulation of voters to new levels. With the impending US election, and with vast amounts of money being spent of social media, it is expected that Deep Fakes will become a huge story later this year - - AI generated fake content is here for good, and we will have to figure how to navigate a world where seeing is no longer believing.
I think this is a book everyone should read, especially anyone engaging with social media or the media in general. Younger generations should be taught how information is manipulated to an extreme that decides political opinions, elections, actions and the landscape of how we receive and digest information.
More importantly when you replace the word information with facts, how facts have become a nostalgic concept of the last century and how we are now governed by fakes news, deep fakes and misinformation steered by those who seek to determine their own narratives at the expense of others and the truth.
'We now exist in an increasingly dangerous and untrustworthy information ecosystem' - absolutely true. So the question is how do we awaken those in denial to this situation and how do we combat it going forward. Even now, despite clear evidence to the contrary, people are unwilling to accept that they have been and are still being deceived by deep fakes to sway their opinions and votes for instance. Sharing memes, gifs, pics and articles, which are constructed for the majority by foreign entities, who choose to intervene in the politics for example for other countries to gain control and manipulate world events.
The example of Estonia vs Russia is used quite successfully by Schick to demonstrate what is going on. What is hard to comprehend is the unwillingness of other, more powerful and well-equipped countries to accept this reality and do something about it.
Perhaps it suits certain people too well, who are pulling their own strings behind the scenes. Cries of you are taking freedoms away, foundations of democracies are being threatened when you silence opposing views are heard, but that is an entirely separate issue. This is about power grabs. This an undercurrent of rebuilding what was lost and using doing so by any means possible.
Buy Deep Fakes on Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Monoray; pub date 6 August 2020 | £8.99 | Paperback. Buy at Amazon com.
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