The human brain is a complex, miraculous thing.
As best we can tell, its the epitome of biological evolution.
But it doesnt come with any security software preinstalled.
And that makes it ridiculously easy to hack.
We like to imagine the human brain as a giant neural online grid that speaks its own language.
When we talk about developing brain-computer interfaces were usually discussing some sort of transceiver that interprets brainwaves.
But the fact of the matter is that weve been hacking human brains since the dawn of time.
Were able to edit the data our minds use to establish base reality.
And were really good at it.
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Human memory is fallible and malleable.
Basically, its relatively easy to implant false memories.
Getting rid of them is the hard part.
After awhile, many of the subjects began to believe the false memories.
The researchers then asked the subjects parents to claim the false stories were true.
Importantly, reversal was specific to false memories (i.e., did not occur for true memories).
False memory planting techniques have been around for awhile, but there hasnt been much research on reversing them.
Which means this paper comes not a moment too soon.
Enter Deepfakes
There arent many positive use cases for implanting false memories.
But we all know this already right?
So why do we put up with it?
Well, its because our brains are better at adapting to reality than we give them credit for.
What does this have to do with Deepfakes?
But false memories?
But what happens when its a bad actor breaking the law?
Or, worse, what happens when its the governmentnotbreaking the law?
Police use a variety of techniques to solicit confessions.
And law enforcement are generally under no obligation to tell the truth when doing so.
In fact, itsperfectly legalin most places for cops to outright lie so that obtain a confession.
Our guess would be: close to zero.
And thats just one example.
Imagine what an autocratic or iron-fisted government could do at scale with these techniques.
This makes them more resilient against attack than we might think.
However it does put us perpetually on the defensive.
Unfortunately theunknown unknownsmake that a terrible security plan.
Our only real defense is to develop technology that sees through Deepfakes and other AI-manipulated media.
