In this episode of WDYTAX, Simon and Adam talk about Deepfakes - the technology behind Channel 4's alternative Christmas message. A brief run through of their history, some current applications, and some predictions of where they may be applied in the future. How is technology being used to manipulate voters and consumers? This poses a lot of questions around authenticity and how we may be wired to project a false self when it suits us.

There are a few links and books mentioned throughout the episode:

• A Deepfake Queen's Speech is just the start - Adam's short blog post with a few predictions
• A Discourse on Inequality - Jean Jacques Rousseau's take on the root of the false self
• The GANfather - a good history of GANs and the technology
• Deepfakes in elections - a Vice.com article discussing the use of Deepfakes to change the dialect of a political video that subsequently went viral
• This person does not exist - realistic images of people that have never existed generated by GANs
• Which person is real? - can you spot a GAN fake from the real deal?
• This pizza does not exist - AI Pizza anyone?
• This X does not exist - more GAN implementations to play with