09/21/2024

Deep-Fake it ‘til you make it: The academic integrity challenges of Deepfake technology

Written by Mike Perkins

Image created using Ideogram.ai

A Deepfake Dilemma
Picture this: It's a typical Monday morning, and you're settling into your office with a cup of coffee. Suddenly, your phone starts buzzing with messages from colleagues and students. They're all asking about a video of your university's president that's going viral on campus social media. In the video, the president appears to be announcing a controversial new policy that goes against everything the institution stands for.

Your first thought is, "That can't be right." Your second thought is, "Is this a deepfake?"

As an educator, how would you respond? How can you be sure what's real and what's not? And what does this mean for academic integrity in an age where seeing is no longer believing?

This scenario might sound like science fiction, but it's becoming increasingly plausible in today's world of advanced AI and deepfake technology. As educators and researchers, we're witnessing a technological revolution that's both exciting and concerning. Deepfakes, a cutting-edge form of synthetic media, are making waves across various sectors, and higher education is no exception. But what exactly are deepfakes, and how do they differ from other types of AI-generated content? While synthetic media broadly covers any artificially created content, deepfakes take it a step further. They're specifically designed to mimic real people, making it appear as if someone said or did something they never actually did. Think of it as digital puppetry, but so convincing that it's often hard to tell what's real and what's not. For example, can you tell the difference between these two video of news anchor Anderson Cooper?

The Academic Integrity Challenge
The technology behind deepfakes, has come a long way in a short time and is rapidly raising new implications for academic integrity. As GenAI tools have become more widespread, educators are being encouraged to consider other ways of asking students to demonstrate their skills and expertise in formats other than the written word. Video submissions, once thought to be a more personal and secure form of assessment, are now vulnerable to manipulation. A student could easily use deepfake technology to create a video of themselves presenting work they didn't actually complete. This becomes even more concerning when we think about language proficiency tests or practical skill demonstrations. How can we be sure the person we see in the video is really the student, or that they're actually performing the task as required?

The implications extend to live assessments too. Remote proctoring methods, which many institutions adopted during the pandemic and continue to rely on for online courses, may no longer be as secure as we once thought. Deepfake technology could allow a student to appear to be present and engaged in an exam, while someone else entirely is actually taking the test. This poses a significant challenge for institutions that have built their business model around online course delivery. Contract cheating, already a serious concern in academia, takes on a new dimension with deepfakes. Students could potentially allow others to impersonate them in video interviews or oral exams, making it much harder for institutions to verify the identity of the person being assessed. This not only compromises the integrity of individual assessments but could also undermine the value of entire qualifications if left unchecked.

The mere existence of deepfake technology could cast doubt on legitimate work. A student who produces an exceptional video project or gives an outstanding presentation might find their achievement questioned, with skeptics wondering if deepfake technology was used to enhance their performance.

The Silver Lining
However, it’s not all bad news. Deepfake technology could revolutionize how we create and deliver educational content. Imagine students having conversations with historical figures, or complex scientific concepts brought to life through hyper-realistic visualizations. We could create personalized AI tutors or make educational materials instantly available in multiple languages. Being able to easily produce high quality video content using your own likeness in conjunction with GenAI tools is also a way to enhance learning opportunities and connect with students when educators are pressed for time.

In our recent paper published in the Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice, Jasper Roe, myself, and Leon Furze have outlined a research agenda to help the community to tackle these issues. We look at four key areas: the ethical and pedagogical implications of deepfakes, developing institutional policies, managing trust and potential crises, and examining how deepfakes might change fundamental academic practices like publishing and peer review.

Figure 1 Roe, Perkins & Furze (2024) A Deepfake Research Agenda for Tertiary Education, p. 12

Join the Conversation!
We are just starting to scratch the surface of this new technology, and that's where you come in! We're inviting educators, researchers, and managers within Higher Education to participate in our short survey on academic attitudes towards deepfake technologies to help us understand how educators feel about the potential challenges and benefits of these rapidly developing technologies.
In a world where the line between real and fake is increasingly blurred, it's crucial that we work together to ensure academic integrity remains crystal clear. After all, in education, we can't afford to 'fake it till we make it' – we need to get it right from the start.

References
Roe, J., Perkins, M., & Furze, L. (2024). Deepfakes and Higher Education: A Research Agenda and Scoping Review of Synthetic Media. Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice. https://doi.org/10.53761/2y2np178

The author's views are their own.

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