It looks like your CEO. It sounds like your CEO. It isn't your CEO. And millions of people just watched it. 

"You can easily just pay a subscription of $20 and create a fake of a brand," says UNSW Business School’s Associate Professor Eric Lim. That's the reality of a deepfake threat, and it’s already happening – from cloned voices to viral fake news reports. 

A business can spend decades building its reputation, only for an AI clone to hijack it in seconds. Deepfakes are now so ingrained in our online world that it's hard to tell what's real, and what's a convincing scam. 

You can't stop AI fakes from being made, and A/Prof. Lim says detection tools will always be one step behind. He says the strongest defence has nothing to do with technology, "you start with the individual, because that's the only defence that you can control." 

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Want to hear more about how AI decides what you pay? Listen to our episode with Associate Professor Sam Kirshner. 

The Business Of podcast is brought to you by UNSW Business School, produced with Deadset Studios. It’s hosted by Dr Juliet Bourke, and the transcript can be found on our website. 

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We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the land on which this show was made.