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Policy·The Trace·Automated dual reading·Published 2026-07-20

development and governance of deepfake synthetic media

Source article: Decent deepfakes? Professional deepfake developers’ ethical considerations and their governance potential

Abstract Policymakers and societies are grappling with the question of how to respond to deepfakes, i.e., synthetic audio-visual media which is proliferating in all areas of digital life– from politics to pornography. However, debates and research on deepfakes’ impact and governance largely neglect the technology’s sources, namely the developers of the underlying artificial intelligence (AI), and those who provide code or deepfake creation services to others, making the technology widely accessible. These actors…

TRV-2026-0364Peer-reviewedPermanent record — cite & verify
Trace impact reading

Contested: both sides are scored from claims and sources, not community votes.

P 64The P score combines the specificity and measured human impact of the grounded problem claim with the strength of this Trace’s cited sources.G 68The G score combines the specificity and measured human impact of the grounded gain claim with the strength of this Trace’s cited sources.
Decent deepfakes? Professional deepfake developers’ ethical considerations and their governance potential

Handmade-Poster-Trustworthy-AI-Framework-and-Global-Standardization by Anushka10patel. CC BY-SA 4.0 · https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0

The quick read

Published September 2024, this peer-reviewed study interviewed ten academic and commercial deepfake developers and ethics representatives to understand what values guide professional development of synthetic audio-visual media and how incentives shape their sense of agency.

It matters because developers control which AI models are built and released and what kinds of deepfakes can be created, yet governance discussions have largely excluded them; the small interview sample means findings are exploratory rather than representative of the broader developer ecosystem.

Main points
  • Study examines values guiding professional deepfake development and how economic and academic pressures influence agency and ethical views.
  • Focuses on open-source developers, large technology companies, specialized start-ups, and deepfake apps that make creation widely accessible.
  • Findings based on ten qualitative in-depth expert interviews with academic and commercial developers and ethics representatives.
Gain

Professional deepfake developers' ethical values can inform governance measures that directly address developers and providers to curb dangers of synthetic media.

Problem

Synthetic audio-visual deepfakes are proliferating across digital life, creating governance challenges for policymakers and societies.

The rundown

The paper argues debates on deepfake impact and governance have neglected the sources of the technology, including those who provide code or creation services that make it widely accessible.

It investigates how developers' values, derived from AI ethics debates, and economic and academic incentives affect decisions about which underlying AI technologies are developed and made public.

What this doesn’t fix

Findings are based on a small qualitative sample of ten expert interviews, limiting generalizability to all developer populations.

Sources

Reader signal

How should this claim be treated?

The debate