On January 23, an event named “Friday Night AI: Deepfakes, AI, and the Future of Trust” was held at the Ann Arbor District Library, drawing over 40 participants, including students and community members. This initiative is part of the eighth annual AI Symposium series, organized by the University of Michigan Artificial Intelligence Laboratory in collaboration with U-M Flint’s College of Innovation and Technology and the School of Information.
The session aimed to inform the public about the implications of artificial intelligence, particularly the challenges posed by deepfakes—realistic images or videos created by machine learning. Yara El-Tawil, a Rackham student, led an interactive session where attendees analyzed pairs of photos and videos to identify authentic content versus deepfakes. She highlighted the complex societal ramifications of this technology and the ongoing efforts by researchers to ethically navigate AI development.
Cliff Lampe, an associate dean at the School of Information, stressed the necessity of AI education for students as they face a changing job landscape. He remarked that while some traditional jobs may vanish, new opportunities will emerge. Khalid Malik, a professor and director at U-M Flint’s College of Innovation and Technology, noted the increasing realism of deepfakes and emphasized the need for ongoing research to maintain human oversight in technology development.