Episode 13: The Dolus Deception: Deepfake Technology and the Fight Against Falsehood & Disinformation

Guests Dr. Hany Farid and Ted Schlein join host Col. Dave Brown and co-host Dr. Tim Schultz to discuss deepfake technology and the challenge of the proliferation of fake news and disinformation. One of Aesop’s fables was titled Prometheus and Dolus, or sometimes alternatively titled, On Truth and Falsehood. In the fable, Prometheus can bring to life the figures he creates, and so he makes a sculpture of Truth (Veritas). When he is called away by Zeus, he leaves his workshop in the hands of his apprentice Dolus (the Greek God of Deception). While he is gone, Dolus fashions a replica of Prometheus\u27s Truth, but runs out of clay, so his statue has no feet. When Prometheus returns, he marvels at the flawless likeness and fires both sculptures in the oven. When both figures come to life, Prometheus\u27 Veritas (Truth) walks gracefully forward, while Dolus’ figure remains still - unable to walk. Ever after, Dolus\u27 figure was called Mendacity (Falsehood). This is a fitting description of our topic which concerns the ever-growing area of deepfake digital media, its potential for tremendous negative consequences for domestic and international cybersecurity, its larger potential for societal disruption, and recommendations for how best to address it. Articles: California Enacts New Laws to Combat AI-Generated Deceptive Election Content, S. Levi, T. Rosen et al, Skadden, 27 Sep 2024 California Passes Election ‘Deepfake’ Laws, Forcing Social Media Companies to Take Action, NYT, 17 Sep 2024 Deepfakes Are Evolving. This Company Wants to Catch Them All, W. Knight, Wired, 27 Jun 2024 Hany Farid: Creating, Weaponizing, and Detecting Deep Fakes, UCSB Interdisciplinary Humanities Center, 3 May 2023 (video) A Forensics Expert on Princess Kate’s Photo—and How Credentialing Tools Can Help Build Trust in a World of Increasing Uncertainty, H. Farid, TIME, 12 Mar 2024 AI is destabilizing ‘the concept of truth itself’ in 2024 election, P. Verma & G. De Vynck, Washington Post, 22 Jan 2024 Hany Farid: To limit disinformation, we must regulate internet platforms, E. Lempinen, UC Berkeley News, 21 Nov, 2023 Podcast: Hany Farid on deep fakes, doctored photos, and disinformation, H. Farid, Q. Jurecic & E. Douek, Brookings, 24 Jul 2020 (Podcast) Creating,Using, Misusing, and Detecting Deep Fakes, Farid, H. (2022). Creating, Using, Misusing, and Detecting Deep Fakes. Journal of Online Trust and Safety, 1(4). https://doi.org/10.54501/jots.v1i4.56 Dr. Hany Farid CV: https://www.congress.gov/116/meeting/house/110075/witnesses/HHRG-116-IF16-Bio-FaridH-20191016.pdf Ted Schlein’s 2-year-old Ballistic Ventures has already raised a second $360 million fund, J. Bort, TechCrunch, 14 Mar 2024 Cybersecurity investor Ted Schlein: ‘I think the whole landscape needs to be completely rethought’, A. Janofsky, The Record, 22 Apr 2021 Could AI and Deepfakes Sway the US Election?, L. Feiger, WIRED, 6 Sep 2024 The Trouble With Deepfakes: Liar\u27s Dividend, FT Tech Tonic, 22 Aug 2024 ------------------------ Guests: Timothy Schultz, Ph.D., Col., U.S. Air Force (Retired) - Co-HostAssociate Dean of Academics at the U.S. Naval War College. Dr. Schultz is a retired Air Force colonel and former U-2 pilot, and previously served as dean of the U.S. Air Force\u27s School of Advanced Air and Space Studies. Tim\u27s research interests include the transformative role of automation in warfare and the impact of technological change on institutions, society and military strategy. He authored The Problem with Pilots: How Physicians, Engineers, and Airpower Enthusiasts Redefined Flight and co-edited Air Power in the Age of Primacy: Air Warfare since the Cold War. Hany Farid, Ph.D.Chief Science Officer at GetReal Labs specializing in image analysis, digital forensics, and the intersection of technology and society particularly as it pertains to online harms. Dr. Farid is also a professor at the University of California, Berkeley with a joint appointment in electrical engineering & computer sciences and the School of Information. He is a member of the Berkeley Artificial Intelligence Lab, Berkeley Institute for Data Science, Center for Innovation in Vision and Optics, Development Engineering, Vision Science Program, and is a senior faculty advisor for the Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity. His research focuses on digital forensics where he develops computational and mathematical techniques to authenticate digital media and debunk deepfakes. Ted SchleinChairman Ballistic Ventures, & general partner for 25 years at Kleiner Perkins. Ted’s career in venture capital spans more than 30 years in the field of cybersecurity, and his roles as operator, founder, investor and advisor have resulted in the creation of companies that have fundamentally shaped the cybersecurity landscape. Ted also provides counsel to the U.S. intelligence community, serves on the Board of Trustees at InQTel, and he is a board member of the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency’s Advisory Committee. Ballistic Ventures is the embodiment of Ted’s vision for how venture capital can play a crucial role in the continual fight for a free and secure digital future.https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/the-trident/1012/thumbnail.jp

China’s Naval Diplomacy in the Baltic Sea at the Beginning of the Twenty-First Century—A Lost Window of Opportunity

The PLA Navy engaged Baltic Sea states heavily in the first and second decades of the twenty-first century, but these cooperative efforts ultimately failed as the contradiction with more-aggressive and concerning Chinese policies overall became untenable

Episode 1: Words Matter: Irregular Warfare Definitions and Constructs

Guests Robert S. Burrell, Richard Tilley, and David H. Ucko join host Col. Dave Brown to discuss the definition of Irregular Warfare (IW), its changing construct in DoD, and its overall utility. The group touches on the broader dimensions of the “competition” space indirectly affecting both IW and the larger international security environment. Article: A Full Spectrum of Conflict Design: How Doctrine Should Embrace Irregular Warfare, Robert S. Burrell, March 14, 2023 Article: JP 1 Volume 1, Joint Warfighting, 27 August 2023 Article: Redefining Irregular Warfare: Legitimacy, Coercion, And Power, David H. Ucko and Thomas A. Marks, Oct 18, 2022 ------------------------ Guests:Robert S. Burrell, PhD is an Assistant Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies at Joint Special Operations University with several years of adult learning and teaching experience at the graduate and undergraduate level. My area of expertise and scholarship includes international diplomacy and human intelligence, as well as military history, theory, and doctrine. Previously, I taught history at U.S. Naval Academy. I am also the former editor-in-chief of special operations doctrine. A retired Marine with combat experience, I am an Asia-Pacific expert with 12 years living and working in Japan, Korea, Philippines, and Thailand, as well as a diplomatic tour at the U.S. Embassy in Australia. Richard Tilley serves at the J7 office of IW & Competition. Formerly the principal advisor to Chairman Joint Chiefs and Joint Staff concerning ability to wage IW sustain campaigns of strategic competition against our adversaries. Directed CJCS’ Joint Irregular Warfare Assessment. Led efforts to institutionalize and integrate IW and strategic competition capabilities and activities across the Joint Force and in coordination with interagency, multinational, and other domestic and foreign interorganizational partners. Prior to joining the Joint Staff in 2021, Richard served as a strategist in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence & Security analyzing adversarial competitive strategies and orienting the Department’s sensitive activities and special operations. Previously served as the national security advisor to a senior member of the HASC, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. David H. Ucko, PhD is a Professor at the College of International Security Affairs (CISA) of the National Defense University, Washington DC, where he teaches irregular warfare and strategy to international military and civilian practitioners. From 2019-2023, he was the chair of CISA\u27s Department of War & Conflict Studies (WACS) and, from 2018-2022, the Director of the Regional Defense Fellowship Program, whereby he led the College\u27s international deployment of mobile education teams. Dr. Ucko is an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University and a senior visiting fellow at the Department of War Studies, King\u27s College London.https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/the-trident/1000/thumbnail.jp

Study No. 5, Chinese Aerospace Power: Evolving Maritime Roles

Studies in Chinese Maritime Development No. 5: Chinese Aerospace Power: Evolving Maritime Roleshttps://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/cmsi-studies/1003/thumbnail.jp

Another Missed Opportunity to Adopt a Universally Accepted Maritime Treaty

In March 2023, an intergovernmental conference adopted the Agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ Agreement). Inspired by a resurgence of the New International Economic Order (NIEO), the BBNJ Agreement contains numerous provisions that will have the practical effect of making ratification of the agreement untenable for the industrialized nations. Similar provisions were included in the original Part XI of the United Nations Convention on the Law of Sea (UNCLOS). As a result, industrialized nations refused to sign or ratify UNCLOS when it was opened for signature in 1982. UNCLOS did not enter into force until Part XI was amended by an implementing agreement in 1994 to eliminate the NIEO-inspired provisions that were objectionable to the developed nations. Unfortunately, the international community is seeing history repeat itself with the negotiation and adoption of the BBNJ Agreement. In its current form, the BBNJ Agreement repeats many of the mistakes of Part XI and will never receive the required votes for advice and consent in the U.S. Senate. Unless these provisions are amended, the result will be that genetic resources, like deep seabed minerals, will not be exploited for the benefit of mankind

International Law and Acoustic Antagonism in East Asian Waters

This article analyzes a 2023 maritime incident in which the Chinese Navy Ship (CNS) Ningbo employed active sonar in the vicinity of His Majesty’s Australian Ship (HMAS) Toowoomba, while knowing that Toowoomba had divers in the water. The Chinese sonar caused injuries to the Australian divers. The article discusses the employment of acoustic devices to cause harm during peacetime and analyzes whether CNS Ningbo’s actions constituted a failure of due regard and other applicable legal regimes and norms. The article concludes that CNS Ningbo’s actions were an unlawful use of force and failed to demonstrate due regard, and that HMAS Toowoomba could have lawfully employed necessary and proportionate measures in self-defense

Recent Developments in the Jurisprudence Concerning the Delimitation of the Continental Shelf Beyond 200 Nautical Miles: Analysis of the Mauritius/Maldives and Nicaragua v. Colombia Cases

This article examines recent developments in the jurisprudence related to the delimitation of the continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles by analyzing the Mauritius/Maldives and Nicaragua v. Colombia cases. The ITLOS Special Chamber in Mauritius/Maldives did not delimit the continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles due to applying the standard of “significant uncertainty.” In this regard, the scope of and criterion for the standard of “significant uncertainty” merit discussion. The ICJ, in Nicaragua v. Colombia, identified a rule of customary international law that the continental shelf of a State beyond 200 nautical miles may not extend within 200 nautical miles from the baselines of another State. While the holding is crucial, its reasoning needs further consideration. After an examination of the two cases, this article will conclude that despite the difference in the approaches taken by the ICJ and ITLOS Special Chamber, the legal consequence will remain the same: no effect shall be given to a continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles that extends into the 200 nautical mile EEZ of another State

CMSI Note #3: “Choose the Right Person, Choose the Right Path”: Taiwan’s Cross-Strait, National Security, and Defense Policies Under a Lai/Hsiao Administration

CMSI’s Perspectives and Key Takeaways: The incoming William Lai/Bi-khim Hsiao administration almost certainly intends to continue to execute and deepen President Tsai’s defense reforms. Lai has also stated his support for the implementation of an Indo-Pacific Strategy concept. Lai has an opportunity to leverage the national security experience of President Tsai’s outgoing advisors, who may potentially help his administration calibrate Taiwan’s responses to People’s Liberation Army (PLA) military provocations in and around the Taiwan Strait. The Lai administration likely would prove receptive to U.S. and partner overtures that contribute to Taiwan’s ability to strengthen its maritime domain awareness and security; enhance maritime law enforcement and search and rescue capabilities; conduct maritime patrols; and improve information sharing. Lai intends to maintain the cross-Strait status quo, and has stated that he is willing to conduct dialogue with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) on the basis of mutual respect and equality. Lai almost certainly will seek to continue President Tsai Ing-wen’s policy of diversifying Taiwan’s economy and expanding sustainable trade partnerships with democratic nations. He has stated that overdependence on the PRC leaves Taiwan vulnerable to economic coercion, and thus opposes pursuing further economic agreements with China under the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) or a potential Cross-Strait Trade in Services Agreement (CSTSA).https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/cmsi-notes/1002/thumbnail.jp