At the 10th annual Consensus crypto conference in Austin, Texas, a group of media execs and technologists explained how blockchain technology is well suited to combat what they see as an incoming wave of deepfakes that threatens creators’ rights.
"Blockchain really helps in establishing ownership of content and protecting those rights in a way that is really hard to do IRL,” explained Maya Draisin, Time’s chief brand officer.
At a panel discussion dubbed “AI, Blockchain and the Creator Economy,” the recent conflict between OpenAI and Scarlett Johansson was very much top of mind. OpenAI had been accused of copying the actor’s voice for its latest AI assistant (it denied this), and the panelists said that blockchain is a potential solution for artists worried about a similar fate.
David Tackel, the senior vice president of Fox Corp’s technology research and development arm, said blockchain tech will allow consumers to check in real time whether a piece of art or online content was, in fact, made by that artist. Picture digital signatures, verified on chain.
Stuart Levi, a partner in the Intellectual Property and Technology Group at the law firm Skadden Arps, agreed. “I do feel that ledger technology is a way to address and solve for that.” For this to happen, Levi argued that the industry has to move past thinking of NFTs as speculative assets such as Bored Apes.
Time has explored NFTs as a way to access the magazine’s content, and Drasin emphasized that the industry needs to rethink its relationship with blockchain tech more broadly. "The most interesting stuff of NFTs is as tokens, not as art," she said.
If blockchain tech and tokens helps artists defend against deepfakes, even some digital NFT artists may end up agreeing with her.
