DeepFake: An AI Warning That Gets Under The Skin (Fringe review) 4 Stars ****

DeepFake asks you to participate in its ruse, you becoming Alex, Head of Public Relations at Mirror Minds. Mirror Minds is about to launch an AI product which will allow people to manipulate video and photography at an extremely effective and high level. The question they are desperate to ask you, prior to an emergency board meeting called before tomorrow’s launch, is, are you ethically in, or are you against it?  

You are the only one in the place. Once invited through the front door, you fill in a questionnaire. It asks you about your holiday. You are taken through to an office space with baffle boards on three sides, a chair, and a screen. You sit and are welcomed back by an HR person. It’s a discussion that is very surface level and then you are directed to a folder filled with material about this Artificial Intelligence. It’s disturbing and lucrative work. 

Then you meet the CEO who is desperate to get your approval. You tell them what you think: there is then a glitch in the system, your image freezes and then you and the CEO return.

This concept is disturbing, incredibly disturbing, not least because the way in which you are shown the strength of AI was with yourself. I won’t give away the ending, but I am sure you can work it out from the name, DeepFake. The concept is simple and the production values manage to replicate the type of office environment that ordinary workers are very familiar with – if I actually were the Head of PR I would be asking for my own office.

Mind you, given my answer I would not have been surprised if they had asked me to leave at the end. That would have cemented the message – the audience being escorted out – but as it stands DeepFake is a warning. And, I feel very, very warned.

DeepFake is at Underbelly Cowgate until 30th August, at various times during the day and lasts 15 minutes https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/deepfake