The students are advised that on 16th February at 11:00 am (Italian hour) a webinar of prof. Marco Viola (University of Roma 3) will take place on Teams. Here the link: https://tinyurl.com/bp8kwfw8. The webinar is entitled: "Deepfakes & Non-Consensual Intimate Images: An Argument for (Qualified) Optimism". I remind that the attendance of the webinar is mandatory in order for the students enrolled in the MD in Cognitive science and Theory of communication to get one credit (CFU/ECTS). The attending students have also to write a report of 10.000 characters plus bibliography. Here below you find the flyer of the event.
ABSTRACT: The illicit diffusion of intimate photographs or videos intended for private use is a troubling phenomenon known as the diffusion of Non-Consensual Intimate Images (NCII). Recently, it has been feared that the spread of deepfake technology, which allows users to fabricate fake intimate images or videos that are indistinguishable from genuine ones, may dramatically extend the scope of NCII. In the present essay, we counter this pessimistic view, arguing for qualified optimism instead. We hypothesize that the growing diffusion of deepfakes will end up disrupting the status that makes our visual experience of photographic images and videos epistemically and affectively special; and that once divested of this status, NCII will lose much of their allure in the eye of the perpetrators, probably resulting in diminished diffusion. We conclude by offering some caveats and drawing some implications to better understand, and ultimately better counter, this phenomenon.