Experts are raising doubts that artificial intelligence was used to create a video that police are calling a “deepfake” and is at the center of an ongoing legal battle playing out in Pennsylvania.
The incident made international news last month after the mother of a high school cheerleader was accused of manipulating images and video in an effort to make it appear as if her daughter’s rivals were drinking, smoking, and posing nude.
The mother, 50-year-old Raffaela Spone, reportedly sent the doctored content from an anonymous number to three cheerleaders and their coaches.
The Bucks County District Attorney’s Office, which charged Spone with three counts of cyber harassment of a child and three counts of harassment, referenced the term deepfake when discussing the images as well as a video that depicted one of the alleged victim’s vaping.