AI, Deepfakes & the Crisis of Truth

The challenge

What's the Challenge?

Artificial intelligence has created a crisis of trust in information. AI-generated images, videos, and text are now indistinguishable from reality. Deepfake technology can put anyone's face on anyone's body, make politicians say things they never said, and create entirely fabricated 'evidence' of events that never happened. Meanwhile, AI-powered bots flood social media with propaganda, and sophisticated algorithms manipulate what information you see. The result: it's increasingly difficult to know what's real and what's fake online. This threatens democracy itself—when citizens can't agree on basic facts, self-governance becomes impossible.

Where we agree

Where Most Americans Agree

It's becoming impossible to know what's real online
AI-generated misinformation poses serious threats to democracy
Social media companies should do more to combat fake content
Deepfake technology is dangerous and should have guardrails
Children are especially vulnerable to AI-generated manipulation
Foreign adversaries are using AI to spread propaganda and division
Journalists and fact-checkers face an impossible task against AI-generated content
The speed of AI advancement has outpaced our ability to regulate it
We need better tools to verify what's authentic
This problem will only get worse without action

Source · Pew Research Center 2024-2025, AI Trust Survey

Both sides, fairly

How each side argues it.

Understanding the full debate means reading what each side actually says, not the caricature of it.

Progressive

Progressive Perspective

Tech companies prioritized profit over truth and enabled this crisis
AI is amplifying existing problems of disinformation and hate speech
Unregulated AI threatens marginalized communities who are targeted by deepfakes
We need strong government regulation of AI development and deployment
AI-generated misinformation undermines climate science and public health
Big Tech's AI tools are being used to manipulate elections and suppress votes

Conservative

Conservative Perspective

Mainstream media already spreads misinformation—AI just makes it more obvious
Government regulation of AI will be used to censor conservative speech
Big Tech companies use 'fact-checking' to suppress conservative viewpoints
The real problem is lack of media literacy, not AI technology itself
Free market and technology innovation will solve these problems better than regulation
Government can't be trusted to determine what's true or false

The evidence

Evidence-Based Facts

№ 01
The large majority of Americans report encountering misinformation online; more than 6 in 10 say they see it regularly
Source · Pew Research Center 2024-2025
№ 02
The volume of identified deepfake content online has grown by orders of magnitude since 2022, with rapid growth continuing into 2025-2026
Source · Sensity AI; Reality Defender industry reports
№ 03
Multiple peer-reviewed studies have found that most Americans cannot reliably distinguish AI-generated images from real photos without help
Source · MIT Media Lab and academic studies
№ 04
Foreign influence operations using AI targeted the 2024 U.S. election from Russia, China, and Iran; U.S. intelligence officials have warned of similar activity ahead of the 2026 midterms
Source · Office of the Director of National Intelligence
№ 05
AI-generated scam calls, texts, and impersonation losses cost Americans well over $10 billion in 2024, with FTC data showing continued growth in 2025
Source · Federal Trade Commission Consumer Sentinel data

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Honest questions

Questions for Thoughtful Debate

№ 01
How do we regulate AI-generated content without enabling censorship?
№ 02
Should AI-generated images and videos be required to carry watermarks or labels?
№ 03
What responsibility do tech platforms have for AI-generated misinformation?
№ 04
How can we teach people to be more skeptical of online content without promoting conspiracy thinking?
№ 05
Should creating malicious deepfakes be a federal crime?
№ 06
Can we develop technology to detect AI-generated content faster than AI can fool it?
№ 07
What role should government play in determining what information is true or false?
№ 08
How do we protect democracy when citizens can't agree on basic facts?