Deepfakes are all the rage in the world of cybersecurity. The development of AI technology suggests we will soon have algorithms to create perfect simulations. This ultimate form of identity theft takes away ownership of ourselves. In the worst-case scenario, we become the objects of machine trade. You need not be a George Orwell to imagine how this could threaten our personal and social security.
In today’s article, I do not wish to scrutinize these fears, or say that I don’t share them. Technology is a Damocles’ sword, and for all of its creative powers, it always carries destructive potential. Yet in saying this, I have not contributed to any solution. I would rather consider the possibilities for defense. As usual, psychoanalysis offers some novel insights.
Let us take the example of social engineering, such as pre-texting, baiting, scareware, or phishing. This is often depicted as the overtaking of another person’s identity.
As the icon shows, the assumption is that the attacker wears a mask, or masks his intentions with deceptive talk. Under the mask, we encounter his real personality, or his real message. In the prevention protocols, there is a lot of advice about communication. Since the attacker exploits your insecurities, he is like a clever psychologist. You must be aware of your vulnerability as an object of mind control. But what if the attacker is a deepfake?
This scenario shows the limitation of the term ‘’identity’’. As psychoanalysis showed 30 years ago, identity is a social-linguistic construct. We get a sense of who we are through the mediation of language. There is nothing — no personality, no truth — behind the mask. Rather, your mask is your identity. This is why you can have several consecutive, or even parallel ‘’selves’’, including (but not limited to) virtual ones. Deepfakes confront us with the reality that we are ‘’deepfake humans’’.
In this context, we can see A.I. as an extension, rather than a limit, of our unconscious mind.
People who haven’t undergone psychoanalysis think of it as searching for my ‘’true identity’’. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Analysis aims to teach the subject that all of our ‘’selves’’ are false identifications. It is as though your family, your teachers, and employers, launched a social engineering attack. Their goal was to put their own mask on your face. Analysis ends when you drop all notion of a stable identity. Paradoxically, once you quit the idea of an ‘’authentic” self, you find freedom. Now you can wear any mask on your own terms.
Fans of the (in)famous FACE APP understand my point intuitively. One click on the Reface button annihilates any stable self-image. This is just as horrifying as a social engineering attack. But it also reduces your fear of the unknown. After all, if everything is a deepfake, you won’t be taken by surprise.
I would include psychoanalysis in the curriculum of any prevention strategy.
