The Long-Term Goal of Fakes Is Not Momentary Panic, but Rewriting of History: Challenges and Opportunities of New Technologies Discussed at the WYF

Infoglut is a serious problem that is becoming more acute every year. Truth and post-truth, facts and fakes, primary sources are lost in the data bulk. How to reveal the truth and convey it to a wide audience? Why can't news from Russia be canceled? Experienced media experts answered these questions.

On March 2, 2024, the Fakes, Deepfakes, Neural Networks: Challenges and Opportunities of New Technologies strategic session was held at the WYF 2024 Media Stream. During the session, the speakers discussed the information blockade of Russia and came to the conclusion that the global information space is incomplete without coverage of Russian events. Young media experts were able to ask questions to the experts about how to repel information attacks and convey the truth to the audience in the face of anti-Russian propaganda.

The session was attended by pranksters Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexey Stolyarov, known as Vovan and Lexus, blogger Dmitry Puchkov, RT International's correspondent Chey Bose, Head of the Strategic Directions Department of ANO Dialog Timofey Vi, acting Director of the Communications Department of Rosatom State Corporation Andrey Timonov.

The session was moderated by Margarita Simonyan, Editor-in-Chief of RT TV Channel and Rossiya Segodnya Media Group.

“Very soon, I think this is a matter of a couple of years, it will not only be impossible to determine with whom you are actually talking on the phone, it will be impossible to determine with whom you are communicating both on FaceTime and on video, because artificial intelligence has come so far away, and you can make anyone so easily now, that eventually everything will get back to track, and in order to communicate normally and calmly, knowing that you are really communicating with your sister or your husband, or with your friend, but not with their artificial embodiment for unclear purposes, you will still have to meet as before - in a cafe, in the kitchen. And in this sense, we will return to our past, but the future will not escape us. It becomes more and more difficult every day to recognize what is true and what is not true,” Margarita Simonyan noted when she opened the event.

When speaking about the opportunities of artificial intelligence, she said that already today RT Channel has virtual TV presenters created by neural networks.

However, AI capabilities are not always used for peaceful purposes. According to prankers Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexey Stolyarov, today deepfakes are not only used by scammers, but can also become a tool for inciting interethnic and military conflicts.

“In the future, not what the truth is will play a role, but how many people paid attention to a particular message on social networks. We need to work to increase the audience, and platforms such as the World Youth Festival help us do this,” Alexey Stolyarov said.

Blogger Dmitry Puchkov after he faced with blocking of his YouTube channel, advocated turning to domestic resources: “I switched to domestic resources, and the number of views has not decreased. We need to develop our own. When extremist social networks are closed, we will already have our own platforms. With the help of artificial intelligence capabilities for translation into other languages, this will spread from us to the West. Our point of view will not go anywhere, in French, in Spanish, in German, we will convey it to everyone.”

Timofey Vee, Head of the Strategic Directions Development Department of ANO Dialog, informed that according to a study by ANO Dialog Regions for 2023, 4,054 topics of fake messages were discovered, which turned into 12 million copies of fakes in the content. He also spoke about the main purpose of fakes: “The number of fakes is constantly growing, this is inevitable. We have to know and be able to deal with this phenomenon. But first it is necessary to understand what goals are pursued by those who create them. The long-term goal of our opponents is not momentary panic, but rewriting of history: so that our next generations sincerely believe that, for example, it was not the Soviet Union and the Soviet people who won in World War II, but someone else. By refuting even momentary sources of disinformation, we are doing a great job because we are preventing our history from being rewritten.”

There are especially many myths and false news around the nuclear industry. Why this happens, acting Director of the Communications Department of Rosatom State Corporation Andrey Timonov explained:

“Fakes appear not only because of malicious intent, but also because of lack of knowledge. We are surrounded by sophisticated technologies, and we know nothing about how they work. Multiply that by the sheer amount of content we receive every day. It is difficult to understand all areas, but disseminating information today is quite simple. Of course, there are instructions on how to deal with fakes, but if you follow these instructions, it will take hours to check. Expertise and fact-checking need to be developed, and artificial intelligence may come to the rescue here in the future.”

Media Stream is one of the most modern platforms of the World Youth Festival, which brought together experienced content makers and novice creators from all over the world for a dialogue about the future of the media industry. Here, leading producers and screenwriters, popular bloggers and journalists will talk about the challenges and prospects of media communications, and each participant will find a place for self-expression.

The program of lectures and practical classes was formed by key players in the domestic media industry. The intellectual partners are VK, ANO Dialog, RT, K2 Agency, JSC Gazprom-Media Holding.

Organizers of Media Stream: Ministry of Education and Science of Russia, Rosatom State Corporation, UP Bureau.

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The World Youth Festival is taking place at the Sirius Federal Territory from March 1 to 7, 2024, as per the decree issued by Russian President Vladimir Putin aimed at fostering international youth cooperation.

The Federal Agency for Youth Affairs (Rosmolodezh) is the organizer of the World Youth Festival, with the Directorate of the World Youth Festival serving as the operator for WYF-2024.