Attendees at the Alliance of Democracies meeting in Copenhagen saw Jeanne conduct a Skype interview with what appeared to be President Donald Trump. But it wasn’t. It was a computer-generated facsimile of the president, a so-called “deep fake.” The quality of these high-tech audio and video forgeries is steadily improving, and there are fears that in the not-to-distant future they could be used to undermine candidates and elections. Jeanne’s interaction with the simulation of the president launched a wider discussion about the impact technology is having on democracy featuring Nick Clegg, Facebook’s Vice President of Global Affairs and Communications, and Michael Chertoff, former US Secretary of Homeland Security.
