Welcome to Synthetic Futures’ first virtual event!
We’re bringing together some of the leading minds in the world of synthetic media for a day of exciting panel discussions, ranging from the art of viral face swapping and synthetic media apps to the ethics of deepfake satire building the foundations of the metaverse.
We’ll be hosting the event on our community Discord server and live streaming across social media (details coming soon). Come join us!
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Making waves: The diverse applications of synthetic voice
For many people, synthetic voice is still synonymous with virtual assistants such as Amazon’s Alexa or basic text to speech applications. However, realistic voice synthesis technology has evolved rapidly in recent years and is poised to revolutionise how we speak and listen, from live translation in video calls and personalised voice personas to voice skins for online gaming and voice to voice translation in Hollywood entertainment.
In this session, we’ll look at the fascinating ways voice synthesis will change the way we communicate and express ourselves, and how pioneers of this technology view the future of voice as an essential part of our identity.
Rupal Patel (Moderator)
CEO & Founder, VocalID
Rupal is the CEO and Founder of VocaliD, a voice technology company that provides AI-generated voices with personality. VocaliD’s award-winning technology leverages the latest advances in machine learning, signal processing and voice analytics along with the company’s crowdsourced Voicebank to create inclusive, diverse and brand aligned voices for organizations and individuals with special needs. Rupal is also the co-founder of AITHOS, a consortium of synthetic media companies committed to ethical and responsible use of technology. Rupal began her career as a speech clinician where she became fascinated with the potential of using speech technologies for assistive communication which then led to a doctorate in speech science. She is currently on leave from Northeastern University where she is a tenured professor in the Khoury College of Computer Sciences and Bouve College of Health Sciences. Named one of The Top 11 Visionaries in Voice 2019 by Voicebot.ai and Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People in Business, Rupal has been featured on TED, NPR, and in major international news and technology publications.
Alex Serdiuk
CEO and Co-founder, Respeecher
Alex founded Respeecher with Dmytro Bielievtsov and Grant Reaber in 2018. Since then the team has been focused on high-fidelity voice cloning. Their technology was the first synthetic speech adopted by big Hollywood productions, starting from 2019. Alex is in charge of Business Development and Strategy. Their primary focus is improving the voice cloning technology in several directions, including the tech democratization to let sound professionals and creators all over the world have the fine tool in their acquaintance. Respeecher works in Feature films and TV projects, Video Games, Animation studios, Localization, media agencies, and others.
Aaron Jones
CEO and Co-founder, Yepic
Aaron Jones is an award-winning entrepreneur working in Artificial Intelligence. Aaron co-founded Yepic AI, whose flagship product vidvoice.ai is a state of the art video translation technology that dubs your lips in real-time. Vid Voice is being used in business meetings, telehealth, live events and film dubbing. It's the first and only service of its kind.
Aaron was recognized in the Queen's Birthday Honors list, making him the youngest person to receive a British Empire Medal for services to Industry. He was also awarded Alumni of the Year 2018 by Essex University and shortlisted for Forbes 30 under 30.
Mike Pappas
CEO and Co-founder, Modulate
Mike Pappas is the CEO/Co-founder of Modulate, which uses machine learning to make online voice chat more immersive and inclusive. Mike’s work at Modulate ranges from developing new partnerships within the industry, monitoring trends and new opportunities for Modulate’s unique technology to have a positive impact, and reinforcing an internal and external culture of passion, respect, and personal growth.
Mike graduated from MIT with a BS in Physics and Applied Mathematics in 2014. Before Modulate, Mike spent time at Bridgewater Associates working on cloud technology until joining Lola Travel as an early employee to learn more about building a startup from an experienced entrepreneur (CEO Paul English, who co-founded Kayak.com.) Outside of work, his passions include philosophizing about group cultures and dynamics, video games, and creating experimental cocktails.
Meme machines: The rise of synthetic media apps
Over the last 18 months, a growing number of smartphone and web apps have made generating synthetic media accessible to everyday people around the world. Attracting hundreds of millions of users, these apps have made personalised and highly memeable synthetic content the talk of social media.
In this session, we’ll discuss the extraordinary rise of synthetic media apps, where the space is moving next, and how developers can design their apps and communities to prevent misuse.
Anna Bulakh (Moderator)
Policy Advisor, Reface
Anna Bulakh is Policy Adviser at Reface, an AI powered app for face-swapping with more than 140 million installs.
Anna has 10 years of experience in security and defence policies. Anna was a Research Fellow at the International Centre for Defence and Security (ICDS) in Tallinn and a Research Assistant at the Prague Security Studies Institute (PSSI). Since 2019, she has also been part of the IT community developing solutions to help combat online disinformation.
Anna is a Co-Founder of Cappture.cc, a start-up funded by the Startup Wise Guys accelerator program, and former Program Director at Disinfo.Tech. In her work, she deals with issues such as tech regulation and diplomacy, tech impact on societal security, information and cyber security, broader national security policies and resilience. Currently, she is engaging with experts and the regulatory community to develop a common approach to the future of AI and synthetic media.
Ben Zion Benkhin
CEO and Co-founder, Wombo
Ben is the founder and CEO of WOMBO, one of the most viral apps in history with over 65m downloads in its first 6 months of existence. In a previous life, he ran and operated a digital design agency, and was the President of the University of Toronto AI club. He’s a massive AI geek, and is excited about finding new ways to use the technology to entertain and excite people all over the world.
Dima Shvets
CEO and Co-founder, Reface
Dima is a VC professional interested in internet technologies, startups, venture capital, and innovations. For five years, he was a Managing Partner of a seed-stage venture capital fund Imperious Group.
Dima is co-founder (since 2019) and CEO (since 2021) at Reface, an AI-powered app to swap faces in the videos, GIFs, and photos in a few seconds, that raised $5,5M by a16z. His focus is to spread a vision of the future of digital content to the world, develop long-term relations with businesses, customers, partners, and investors, implementing innovative tech AI-powered solutions for different industries.
Zach Wener
CEO and Co-founder, Uberduck
Zach Wener is the founder of Uberduck, a synthetic speech company that runs the popular web text to speech app of the same name. Before founding Uberduck, Zach studied at MIT and Stanford and spent years building software for the web in California.
Mike graduated from MIT with a BS in Physics and Applied Mathematics in 2014. Before Modulate, Mike spent time at Bridgewater Associates working on cloud technology until joining Lola Travel as an early employee to learn more about building a startup from an experienced entrepreneur (CEO Paul English, who co-founded Kayak.com.) Outside of work, his passions include philosophizing about group cultures and dynamics, video games, and creating experimental cocktails.
How to copyright: Synthetic media, creativity, and the law
New and innovative technologies often get legal practitioners and researchers talking, and synthetic media is no exception. While many uses of synthetic media are covered by existing legal provisions, others, such as synthetic resurrection and the unauthorized commercial use of someone’s likeness, raise interesting questions relating to image rights, privacy, and intellectual property.
In this session, we’ll look at how creative synthetic media fits into current legal frameworks and where these frameworks may need to adapt in the face of new and emerging uses of the technology.
Tom Graham (Moderator)
CEO & Co-founder, Metaphysic
Tom is the CEO and co-founder of Metaphysic. He is obsessed with old digital cameras, NFTs and all things metaverse. He also founded Omnisci, a GPU in-memory database and analytics company based in SF. Previously, he was a US capital markets attorney in Hong Kong and is originally from Australia.
Kelsey Farish
Media & Technology Lawyer, DAC Beachcroft
Kelsey is a media and technology lawyer at DAC Beachcroft in London, where she supports clients ranging from start-ups to large multinational corporations on their media, technology, and internet law matters. She is one of Europe's leadinglegal experts on deepfakes and manipulated digital content: her scholarship includes advisory work for the European Parliament, and publications in the Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice and for the European Audiovisual Observatory.
Nikki Pope
Sr. Director, AI & Legal Ethics, NVIDIA
Nikki is the head of AI & Legal Ethics at NVIDIA where her current focus is on integrating trustworthy AI principles into the company’s processes. By background she is a lawyer and advocates for criminal justice reform through her nonprofit, The Pruno Fund.
Agnes Venema
Marie Curie Researcher, University of Malta & "Mihai Viteazul" National Intelligence Academy
Marie Curie Researcher, University of Malta & "Mihai Viteazul" National Intelligence Academy Agnes E. Venema is a Marie Curie Researcher on the European Joint Doctorate grant “Evolving Security SciencE through Networked Technologies, Information policy And Law” (ESSENTIAL), pursuing a dual doctorate at the “Mihai Viteazul” National Intelligence Academy in Bucharest, Romania and the University of Malta. Her research area is Intelligence and National Security, specializing in Image Intelligence.Agnes has published on deepfakes in the American Bar Association’s SciTech Lawyer and has provided expert commentary for the media, including for Business Insider, The Times and Politico Europe. She has also used her expertise on deepfakes to inform legal consultations of the New Zealand Parliament Justice Committee, the Law Commission of England and Wales, and the European Parliament.Prior to starting her doctorate, Agnes worked on various issues related to international security and law, including at the University of Essex and for various NGOs. She also worked for on Security Sector Reform at the United Nations Mission in Timor-Leste (UNMIT) and was part of an Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) election monitoring mission.Agnes also holds an LL.M. degree in Human Rights and Criminal Justice from the Irish Centre for Human Rights at NUI Galway and a Bachelor degree from University College Utrecht.
Synthetic foundations: Building the Metaverse
Whether it’s avatars, NFTs, virtual influencers, or digital fashion, synthetic media is behind many of the building blocks of the Metaverse. But how exactly do these blocks fit together and who's helping them take shape?
Against a backdrop of skyrocketing interest in recent months, we’ll explore how the metaverse is making virtual worlds as meaningful as physical ones, and how its many diverse components can be realised responsibly.
Tom Graham (Moderator)
CEO & Co-founder, Metaphysic
Tom is the CEO and co-founder of Metaphysic. He is obsessed with old digital cameras, NFTs and all things metaverse. He also founded Omnisci, a GPU in-memory database and analytics company based in SF. Previously, he was a US capital markets attorney in Hong Kong and is originally from Australia.
Arif Khan
CEO & Co-founder, Alethea AI
Arif Khan is the CEO and co-founder of Alethea AI, a decentralized protocol to create intelligent and interactive NFTs powered by Open AI’s GPT-3 engine. Alethea AI is creating a new NFT standard, termed the Intelligent NFT (iNFT) by embedding AI animation, interaction, and voice synthesis capabilities into NFTs. As creators of the First ever iNFT, Alethea partnered with the leading auction house Sotheby’s to create and auction the first interactive and intelligent NFT, Alice. Alethea’s protocol is backed by leading institutions like Metapurse, Bitkraft, Dapper Labs, Galaxy Interactive, Gemini, Mark Cuban, Crypto.com and Multicoin, IDEO and others.
Arif has been regularly invited to speak at major global events like The World Economic Forum, World Web Forum, and has guest lectured at the Singapore Management University’s MBA program. He is a top writer for Artificial Intelligence on Medium.com and his work has been covered or featured in CBS, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal & The New York Times.
Andrew Durgee
Managing Director, Republic
Andrew entered crypto in early 2010, pioneering early blockchain technology plays including an industry first multi signature wallet repository. Andrew studied Management Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and is a highly skilled executive with over 12 years of experience. Andrew was previously a Partner at a leading blockchain advisory group, TLDR.
Deepfake it till you make it: The viral art of faceswapping
In just under four years, viral face swapping has moved from crudely inserting Nicholas Cage’s face in pop culture movies to breathtaking hyperreal videos that have captivated hundreds of millions viewers.
In this session, we reflect on the evolution of face swapping with the creators who turned it into an artform, tracing their beginnings as hobbyists experimenting with new open source tools to becoming some of the world’s most in demand AI artists.
Henry Ajder (Moderator)
Head of Policy & Partnerships, Metaphysic
Henry is Head of Policy & Partnerships at Metaphysic, where he helps shape the company’s approach to developing hyperreal synthetic media technologies ethically.
A world leading expert on deepfakes and synthetic media, Henry’s research has shaped global understanding of synthetic media and its societal impact. He works with governments, companies, law firms, media organisations, and NGOs to address the threats and opportunities these disruptive technologies present, from commercial and cybersecurity strategies to legislation and public policy.
An established media contributor, Henry regularly features in the BBC, The New York Times, Vox, The Guardian, Wired, and The Financial Times.
Previously, Henry was Head of Research Analysis at the world’s first deepfake detection company, Sensity and an Emerging Technologies Researcher at the London based innovation think tank, Nesta.
Chris Ume
Co-founder, Metaphysic
Chris Ume is co-founder of Metaphysic, and is widely recognized as the world expert in the emerging field of hyper-real videos. Since 2018, Ume’s work has blended a mastery of VFX techniques with evolving AI models. Prior to launching Metaphysic, Ume was a lead creator on South Park’s Sassy Justice series. His commercial productions also include a Gillette throwback ad, Belgian football national ad and more. He first gained notoriety with his DeepTomCruise viral videos, which have been seen over 70M times on TikTok.
Shamook
Synthetic media & VFX artist
Shamook is an AI artist and VFX professional best known for his leading work on deepfakes.
Using the latest and best technology, he creates new alternate realities where you can see your favourite actors in roles they never actually starred in, such as Tom Holland in 2004’s Spiderman or Will Smith as Neo in the Matrix. His videos have attracted over 28m views on YouTube alone, and have received media coverage from around the world.
Dr Fakenstein
Synthetic media & VFX artist
Dr Fakenstein is the pseudonym of New Zealand A.I Artist Jeffery White. He is an early adopter of deepfake technology for synthetic face replacement and has used this tech to create comedic viral videos such as Full House of Mustaches and Mike Tyson as Oprah.
He is also a regular contributor to Jimmy Kimmel Live with various deepfake segments including Trump Toddler and deepfake Rudy Guiliani Christmas message.
White is a team member of DeepVoodoo FX, an A.I Studio founded by South Park's Trey Parker and Matt Stone where projects like Sassy Justice are created.
Just Joking? Deepfakes, satire and the politics of synthetic media
In this session, we delve into deepfakes’ growing use in satire and activism around the world, from mocking authoritarian leaders to synthetically resurrecting victims of injustice to demand action.
Based on findings from an upcoming report from Human Rights organisation WITNESS and the Co-creation Studio at MIT Open Documentary Lab, we’ll explore some of the key questions these often controversial uses of synthetic media raise: How can we distinguish intentional disinformation from clumsy deepfake critique? Who’s fair game to target without consent? When should synthetic satire be labelled and who should be responsible for deciding when it crosses the line?
Kat Cizek (Moderator)
Creative Director, Co-Creation Studio at MIT Open Documentary Lab
Katerina Cizek is a Peabody and two-time Emmy Award-winning documentarian working across emergent platforms. She is the artistic director and co-founder of the Co-Creation Studio at MIT Open Documentary Lab. At the studio she wrote (with Uricchio et al.) the world’s first field study on co-creating media called Collective Wisdom, which is forthcoming from MIT Press. For over a decade, Cizek worked as a documentary director at the National Film Board of Canada, transforming the organization into a world-leading digital hub, with the projects Highrise and Filmmaker-in-Residence. Both community-based and globally recognized, these two ground-breaking long-form digital projects garnered international awards and critical acclaim. Cizek is a member of the Directors’ Guild of Canada, has served as an advisor at CPH:DOX, ESoDoc and the Sundance Institute’s New Frontier Lab and Stories of Change Program. She is a founding member of the Guild of Future Architects, a member of the editorial collective at Immerse and a member of the Interactive Board of Jurors for the Peabody Awards.
Sam Gregory
Programme manager, WITNESS
Sam Gregory is the Program Director of WITNESS, which helps people use video and technology to defend human rights. Sam’s current work focuses on the threats and opportunities as emerging technologies such as AI intersect with disinformation, media manipulation, and rising authoritarianism. An expert on new forms of misinformation and disinformation as well as innovations in preserving trust and authenticity, he leads WITNESS’ global ‘Prepare, Don’t Panic’ work on emerging threats such as deepfakes, emerging solutions such as authenticity and provenance infrastructure, and on new opportunities such as live-streamed and co-present storytelling for action and smartphone witnessing for human rights.
Quoted in major media worldwide, he has spoken at Davos and the White House and publishes frequently on issues in technology and human rights. He is a former Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, and is on the Technology Advisory Board of the ICC. He previously taught from 2010 to 2018 on participatory media and human rights at the Harvard Kennedy School, and co-chaired the Partnership on AI’s Expert Group on AI and the Media.
Henry Ajder
Head of Policy & Partnerships, Metaphysic
Henry is Head of Policy & Partnerships at Metaphysic, where he helps shape the company’s approach to developing hyperreal synthetic media technologies ethically.
A world leading expert on deepfakes and synthetic media, Henry’s research has shaped global understanding of synthetic media and its societal impact. He works with governments, companies, law firms, media organisations, and NGOs to address the threats and opportunities these disruptive technologies present, from commercial and cybersecurity strategies to legislation and public policy.
An established media contributor, Henry regularly features in the BBC, The New York Times, Vox, The Guardian, Wired, and The Financial Times.
Previously, Henry was Head of Research Analysis at the world’s first deepfake detection company, Sensity and an Emerging Technologies Researcher at the London based innovation think tank, Nesta.
Mutale Nkonde
CEO & Founder, AI for the People (AFP)
Mutale Nkonde is the leader and founder of AI for the People, a communications firm whose mission is to use art and culture to empower general audiences to combat racial bias in technological design.
Prior to starting AI for the People, Nkonde worked in AI Governance. During that time, she was part of the team that introduced the Algorithmic Accountability Act, the DEEP FAKES Accountability Act, and the No Biometric Barriers to Housing Act, (reintroduced in 2021) to the US House of Representatives in 2019.
Nkonde started her career as a news producer at the BBC in London, is a much sought after commentator on race. In 2019 she published a report on Advancing Racial Literacy in Tech, and her work has been featured in Wired, Washington Post and New York Times. In 2021 Nkonde was part of a news report, on facial recognition and shareholder activism, that was nominated for a New York News Emmy.
Nkonde is currently a fellow at Stanford University's Digital Civil Society Lab, and formerly held fellowships at the Berkman Klein Center of Internet and Society and the Institute of Advanced Study at Notre Dame.
Next generation content creation: The future of entertainment and advertising
VFX and video editing tools have long been the source of the ‘movie magic’ in much of the digital content we consume on a daily basis. As synthetic media continues to become more powerful and accessible, innovative media organizations, creators, and agencies are using the technology to revolutionise the media industry, from branded personalised video messages from famous footballers to synthetic presenters reading your local weather forecast.
In this session, we look at how synthetic media is ushering in a new age of content creation, how the technology will change the future of entertainment and advertising, and how we can navigate some of the ethical challenges the technology presents.
Martin Adams (Moderator)
CEO & Co-founder, Codec
Martin brings more than a decade of experience to play as a speaker, founder, director, and investor in the areas of disruptive technology, innovation and marketing.
Martin is a Co-Founder of Codec.ai (recognised as a ’Top 20 Artificial Intelligence Scaleup' by the UK Government), the Social Media Unit @ UCL and the Digital Leadership Council. Martin is also on the Technology Advisory Board, focusing on internet based business models, for Providence Private Equity.
He has been recognised as one of the UK’s Top 100 Entrepreneurs in the Maserati Top 100 and a Top 50 UK Innovator by Penrose, described as a ‘Marketing Guru’ by the Sunday Times and he speaks internationally on innovation, artificial intelligence, media and marketing and the 'Future of Work.'
Codec.ai named ‘Best Artificial Intelligence Company in Marketing’ at the Cognition X Awards and one of the ‘Hottest Artificial Intelligence Startups in Europe’ by Tech Crunch.
Rob Farnell
Creative Director of User Experience, AI & Voice, BBC
Rob Farnell is Creative Director of User Experience at the BBC. Focusing on voice, ai and emerging experiences. In recent years his team has helped to create the World's first public service voice assistant and created experiences and content using various forms of synthetic media. In parallel he has conducted a piece of research investigating the use of synthetic media, exploring the threats and opportunities it brings for media organisations.
Victor Riparbelli
CEO & Co-founder, Synthesia
Victor Riparbelli is the CEO and co-founder of Synthesia, the world's leading AI video generation platform that makes video creation as easy as writing an email. Simply select your AI presenter, type in your script in one of 40 languages and click create. Your video is ready within minutes. Synthesia is powering a paradigm shift in how we think about media production – from something we record with cameras to something we program with computers. Our vision is to turn the world's text into video.
Prior to founding Synthesia, Victor has been involved in technology entrepreneurship for the last 10 years and has been involved in building products across many industries. His work in the VR/AR sector inspired him to apply similar technologies to video production and in 2017 he co-founded Synthesia with Prof. Matthias Niessner, Prof. Lourdes Agapito and Steffen Tjerrild.
Oliver Feldwick
Head of Innovation, The & Partnership
Oliver Feldwick is The&Partnership’s Head of Innovation. He joined The&Partnership in 2014 and has since worked on accounts including Toyota, Lexus, Mars, NatWest, NewsUK, Centrica, Samsung and Coty. Prior to that he’s worked at agencies like AKQA and BBH. His role looks at the evolving shape of agency models and how technology can help supercharge everything we do.
In 2016, he won the Admap prize with his essay ‘The Uncanny Valley of Personalisation’, and in 2018 he got a distinction in the IPA Excellence Diploma with his paper ‘Unleashing Cyborg Creativity’. In 2020, he won the Atticus Award for his piece on AI, Ethics and Marketing.
Beyond being a massive advertising nerd, he is also a boardgame nerd, keen chef and (mostly) retired runner.
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Making waves: The diverse applications of synthetic voice
For many people, synthetic voice is still synonymous with virtual assistants such as Amazon’s Alexa or basic text to speech applications. However, realistic voice synthesis technology has evolved rapidly in recent years and is poised to revolutionise how we speak and listen, from live translation in video calls and personalised voice personas to voice skins for online gaming and voice to voice translation in Hollywood entertainment.
In this session, we’ll look at the fascinating ways voice synthesis will change the way we communicate and express ourselves, and how pioneers of this technology view the future of voice as an essential part of our identity.
Rupal Patel (Moderator)
CEO & Founder, VocalID
Rupal is the CEO and Founder of VocaliD, a voice technology company that provides AI-generated voices with personality. VocaliD’s award-winning technology leverages the latest advances in machine learning, signal processing and voice analytics along with the company’s crowdsourced Voicebank to create inclusive, diverse and brand aligned voices for organizations and individuals with special needs. Rupal is also the co-founder of AITHOS, a consortium of synthetic media companies committed to ethical and responsible use of technology. Rupal began her career as a speech clinician where she became fascinated with the potential of using speech technologies for assistive communication which then led to a doctorate in speech science. She is currently on leave from Northeastern University where she is a tenured professor in the Khoury College of Computer Sciences and Bouve College of Health Sciences. Named one of The Top 11 Visionaries in Voice 2019 by Voicebot.ai and Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People in Business, Rupal has been featured on TED, NPR, and in major international news and technology publications.
Alex Serdiuk
CEO and Co-founder, Respeecher
Alex founded Respeecher with Dmytro Bielievtsov and Grant Reaber in 2018. Since then the team has been focused on high-fidelity voice cloning. Their technology was the first synthetic speech adopted by big Hollywood productions, starting from 2019. Alex is in charge of Business Development and Strategy. Their primary focus is improving the voice cloning technology in several directions, including the tech democratization to let sound professionals and creators all over the world have the fine tool in their acquaintance. Respeecher works in Feature films and TV projects, Video Games, Animation studios, Localization, media agencies, and others.
Aaron Jones
CEO and Co-founder, Yepic
Aaron Jones is an award-winning entrepreneur working in Artificial Intelligence. Aaron co-founded Yepic AI, whose flagship product vidvoice.ai is a state of the art video translation technology that dubs your lips in real-time. Vid Voice is being used in business meetings, telehealth, live events and film dubbing. It's the first and only service of its kind.
Aaron was recognized in the Queen's Birthday Honors list, making him the youngest person to receive a British Empire Medal for services to Industry. He was also awarded Alumni of the Year 2018 by Essex University and shortlisted for Forbes 30 under 30.
Mike Pappas
CEO and Co-founder, Modulate
Mike Pappas is the CEO/Co-founder of Modulate, which uses machine learning to make online voice chat more immersive and inclusive. Mike’s work at Modulate ranges from developing new partnerships within the industry, monitoring trends and new opportunities for Modulate’s unique technology to have a positive impact, and reinforcing an internal and external culture of passion, respect, and personal growth.
Mike graduated from MIT with a BS in Physics and Applied Mathematics in 2014. Before Modulate, Mike spent time at Bridgewater Associates working on cloud technology until joining Lola Travel as an early employee to learn more about building a startup from an experienced entrepreneur (CEO Paul English, who co-founded Kayak.com.) Outside of work, his passions include philosophizing about group cultures and dynamics, video games, and creating experimental cocktails.
Meme machines: The rise of synthetic media apps
Over the last 18 months, a growing number of smartphone and web apps have made generating synthetic media accessible to everyday people around the world. Attracting hundreds of millions of users, these apps have made personalised and highly memeable synthetic content the talk of social media.
In this session, we’ll discuss the extraordinary rise of synthetic media apps, where the space is moving next, and how developers can design their apps and communities to prevent misuse.
Anna Bulakh (Moderator)
Policy Advisor, Reface
Anna Bulakh is Policy Adviser at Reface, an AI powered app for face-swapping with more than 140 million installs.
Anna has 10 years of experience in security and defence policies. Anna was a Research Fellow at the International Centre for Defence and Security (ICDS) in Tallinn and a Research Assistant at the Prague Security Studies Institute (PSSI). Since 2019, she has also been part of the IT community developing solutions to help combat online disinformation.
Anna is a Co-Founder of Cappture.cc, a start-up funded by the Startup Wise Guys accelerator program, and former Program Director at Disinfo.Tech. In her work, she deals with issues such as tech regulation and diplomacy, tech impact on societal security, information and cyber security, broader national security policies and resilience. Currently, she is engaging with experts and the regulatory community to develop a common approach to the future of AI and synthetic media.
Ben Zion Benkhin
CEO and Co-founder, Wombo
Ben is the founder and CEO of WOMBO, one of the most viral apps in history with over 65m downloads in its first 6 months of existence. In a previous life, he ran and operated a digital design agency, and was the President of the University of Toronto AI club. He’s a massive AI geek, and is excited about finding new ways to use the technology to entertain and excite people all over the world.
Dima Shvets
CEO and Co-founder, Reface
Dima is a VC professional interested in internet technologies, startups, venture capital, and innovations. For five years, he was a Managing Partner of a seed-stage venture capital fund Imperious Group.
Dima is co-founder (since 2019) and CEO (since 2021) at Reface, an AI-powered app to swap faces in the videos, GIFs, and photos in a few seconds, that raised $5,5M by a16z. His focus is to spread a vision of the future of digital content to the world, develop long-term relations with businesses, customers, partners, and investors, implementing innovative tech AI-powered solutions for different industries.
Zach Wener
CEO and Co-founder, Uberduck
Zach Wener is the founder of Uberduck, a synthetic speech company that runs the popular web text to speech app of the same name. Before founding Uberduck, Zach studied at MIT and Stanford and spent years building software for the web in California.
Mike graduated from MIT with a BS in Physics and Applied Mathematics in 2014. Before Modulate, Mike spent time at Bridgewater Associates working on cloud technology until joining Lola Travel as an early employee to learn more about building a startup from an experienced entrepreneur (CEO Paul English, who co-founded Kayak.com.) Outside of work, his passions include philosophizing about group cultures and dynamics, video games, and creating experimental cocktails.
How to copyright: Synthetic media, creativity, and the law
New and innovative technologies often get legal practitioners and researchers talking, and synthetic media is no exception. While many uses of synthetic media are covered by existing legal provisions, others, such as synthetic resurrection and the unauthorized commercial use of someone’s likeness, raise interesting questions relating to image rights, privacy, and intellectual property.
In this session, we’ll look at how creative synthetic media fits into current legal frameworks and where these frameworks may need to adapt in the face of new and emerging uses of the technology.
Tom Graham (Moderator)
CEO & Co-founder, Metaphysic
Tom is the CEO and co-founder of Metaphysic. He is obsessed with old digital cameras, NFTs and all things metaverse. He also founded Omnisci, a GPU in-memory database and analytics company based in SF. Previously, he was a US capital markets attorney in Hong Kong and is originally from Australia.
Kelsey Farish
Media & Technology Lawyer, DAC Beachcroft
Kelsey is a media and technology lawyer at DAC Beachcroft in London, where she supports clients ranging from start-ups to large multinational corporations on their media, technology, and internet law matters. She is one of Europe's leadinglegal experts on deepfakes and manipulated digital content: her scholarship includes advisory work for the European Parliament, and publications in the Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice and for the European Audiovisual Observatory.
Nikki Pope
Sr. Director, AI & Legal Ethics, NVIDIA
Nikki is the head of AI & Legal Ethics at NVIDIA where her current focus is on integrating trustworthy AI principles into the company’s processes. By background she is a lawyer and advocates for criminal justice reform through her nonprofit, The Pruno Fund.
Agnes Venema
Marie Curie Researcher, University of Malta & "Mihai Viteazul" National Intelligence Academy
Marie Curie Researcher, University of Malta & "Mihai Viteazul" National Intelligence Academy Agnes E. Venema is a Marie Curie Researcher on the European Joint Doctorate grant “Evolving Security SciencE through Networked Technologies, Information policy And Law” (ESSENTIAL), pursuing a dual doctorate at the “Mihai Viteazul” National Intelligence Academy in Bucharest, Romania and the University of Malta. Her research area is Intelligence and National Security, specializing in Image Intelligence.Agnes has published on deepfakes in the American Bar Association’s SciTech Lawyer and has provided expert commentary for the media, including for Business Insider, The Times and Politico Europe. She has also used her expertise on deepfakes to inform legal consultations of the New Zealand Parliament Justice Committee, the Law Commission of England and Wales, and the European Parliament.Prior to starting her doctorate, Agnes worked on various issues related to international security and law, including at the University of Essex and for various NGOs. She also worked for on Security Sector Reform at the United Nations Mission in Timor-Leste (UNMIT) and was part of an Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) election monitoring mission.Agnes also holds an LL.M. degree in Human Rights and Criminal Justice from the Irish Centre for Human Rights at NUI Galway and a Bachelor degree from University College Utrecht.
Synthetic foundations: Building the Metaverse
Whether it’s avatars, NFTs, virtual influencers, or digital fashion, synthetic media is behind many of the building blocks of the Metaverse. But how exactly do these blocks fit together and who's helping them take shape?
Against a backdrop of skyrocketing interest in recent months, we’ll explore how the metaverse is making virtual worlds as meaningful as physical ones, and how its many diverse components can be realised responsibly.
Tom Graham (Moderator)
CEO & Co-founder, Metaphysic
Tom is the CEO and co-founder of Metaphysic. He is obsessed with old digital cameras, NFTs and all things metaverse. He also founded Omnisci, a GPU in-memory database and analytics company based in SF. Previously, he was a US capital markets attorney in Hong Kong and is originally from Australia.
Arif Khan
CEO & Co-founder, Alethea AI
Arif Khan is the CEO and co-founder of Alethea AI, a decentralized protocol to create intelligent and interactive NFTs powered by Open AI’s GPT-3 engine. Alethea AI is creating a new NFT standard, termed the Intelligent NFT (iNFT) by embedding AI animation, interaction, and voice synthesis capabilities into NFTs. As creators of the First ever iNFT, Alethea partnered with the leading auction house Sotheby’s to create and auction the first interactive and intelligent NFT, Alice. Alethea’s protocol is backed by leading institutions like Metapurse, Bitkraft, Dapper Labs, Galaxy Interactive, Gemini, Mark Cuban, Crypto.com and Multicoin, IDEO and others.
Arif has been regularly invited to speak at major global events like The World Economic Forum, World Web Forum, and has guest lectured at the Singapore Management University’s MBA program. He is a top writer for Artificial Intelligence on Medium.com and his work has been covered or featured in CBS, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal & The New York Times.
Andrew Durgee
Managing Director, Republic
Andrew entered crypto in early 2010, pioneering early blockchain technology plays including an industry first multi signature wallet repository. Andrew studied Management Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and is a highly skilled executive with over 12 years of experience. Andrew was previously a Partner at a leading blockchain advisory group, TLDR.
Deepfake it till you make it: The viral art of faceswapping
In just under four years, viral face swapping has moved from crudely inserting Nicholas Cage’s face in pop culture movies to breathtaking hyperreal videos that have captivated hundreds of millions viewers.
In this session, we reflect on the evolution of face swapping with the creators who turned it into an artform, tracing their beginnings as hobbyists experimenting with new open source tools to becoming some of the world’s most in demand AI artists.
Henry Ajder (Moderator)
Head of Policy & Partnerships, Metaphysic
Henry is Head of Policy & Partnerships at Metaphysic, where he helps shape the company’s approach to developing hyperreal synthetic media technologies ethically.
A world leading expert on deepfakes and synthetic media, Henry’s research has shaped global understanding of synthetic media and its societal impact. He works with governments, companies, law firms, media organisations, and NGOs to address the threats and opportunities these disruptive technologies present, from commercial and cybersecurity strategies to legislation and public policy.
An established media contributor, Henry regularly features in the BBC, The New York Times, Vox, The Guardian, Wired, and The Financial Times.
Previously, Henry was Head of Research Analysis at the world’s first deepfake detection company, Sensity and an Emerging Technologies Researcher at the London based innovation think tank, Nesta.
Chris Ume
Co-founder, Metaphysic
Chris Ume is co-founder of Metaphysic, and is widely recognized as the world expert in the emerging field of hyper-real videos. Since 2018, Ume’s work has blended a mastery of VFX techniques with evolving AI models. Prior to launching Metaphysic, Ume was a lead creator on South Park’s Sassy Justice series. His commercial productions also include a Gillette throwback ad, Belgian football national ad and more. He first gained notoriety with his DeepTomCruise viral videos, which have been seen over 70M times on TikTok.
Shamook
Synthetic media & VFX artist
Shamook is an AI artist and VFX professional best known for his leading work on deepfakes.
Using the latest and best technology, he creates new alternate realities where you can see your favourite actors in roles they never actually starred in, such as Tom Holland in 2004’s Spiderman or Will Smith as Neo in the Matrix. His videos have attracted over 28m views on YouTube alone, and have received media coverage from around the world.
Dr Fakenstein
Synthetic media & VFX artist
Dr Fakenstein is the pseudonym of New Zealand A.I Artist Jeffery White. He is an early adopter of deepfake technology for synthetic face replacement and has used this tech to create comedic viral videos such as Full House of Mustaches and Mike Tyson as Oprah.
He is also a regular contributor to Jimmy Kimmel Live with various deepfake segments including Trump Toddler and deepfake Rudy Guiliani Christmas message.
White is a team member of DeepVoodoo FX, an A.I Studio founded by South Park's Trey Parker and Matt Stone where projects like Sassy Justice are created.
Just Joking? Deepfakes, satire and the politics of synthetic media
In this session, we delve into deepfakes’ growing use in satire and activism around the world, from mocking authoritarian leaders to synthetically resurrecting victims of injustice to demand action.
Based on findings from an upcoming report from Human Rights organisation WITNESS and the Co-creation Studio at MIT Open Documentary Lab, we’ll explore some of the key questions these often controversial uses of synthetic media raise: How can we distinguish intentional disinformation from clumsy deepfake critique? Who’s fair game to target without consent? When should synthetic satire be labelled and who should be responsible for deciding when it crosses the line?
Kat Cizek (Moderator)
Creative Director, Co-Creation Studio at MIT Open Documentary Lab
Katerina Cizek is a Peabody and two-time Emmy Award-winning documentarian working across emergent platforms. She is the artistic director and co-founder of the Co-Creation Studio at MIT Open Documentary Lab. At the studio she wrote (with Uricchio et al.) the world’s first field study on co-creating media called Collective Wisdom, which is forthcoming from MIT Press. For over a decade, Cizek worked as a documentary director at the National Film Board of Canada, transforming the organization into a world-leading digital hub, with the projects Highrise and Filmmaker-in-Residence. Both community-based and globally recognized, these two ground-breaking long-form digital projects garnered international awards and critical acclaim. Cizek is a member of the Directors’ Guild of Canada, has served as an advisor at CPH:DOX, ESoDoc and the Sundance Institute’s New Frontier Lab and Stories of Change Program. She is a founding member of the Guild of Future Architects, a member of the editorial collective at Immerse and a member of the Interactive Board of Jurors for the Peabody Awards.
Sam Gregory
Programme manager, WITNESS
Sam Gregory is the Program Director of WITNESS, which helps people use video and technology to defend human rights. Sam’s current work focuses on the threats and opportunities as emerging technologies such as AI intersect with disinformation, media manipulation, and rising authoritarianism. An expert on new forms of misinformation and disinformation as well as innovations in preserving trust and authenticity, he leads WITNESS’ global ‘Prepare, Don’t Panic’ work on emerging threats such as deepfakes, emerging solutions such as authenticity and provenance infrastructure, and on new opportunities such as live-streamed and co-present storytelling for action and smartphone witnessing for human rights.
Quoted in major media worldwide, he has spoken at Davos and the White House and publishes frequently on issues in technology and human rights. He is a former Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, and is on the Technology Advisory Board of the ICC. He previously taught from 2010 to 2018 on participatory media and human rights at the Harvard Kennedy School, and co-chaired the Partnership on AI’s Expert Group on AI and the Media.
Henry Ajder
Head of Policy & Partnerships, Metaphysic
Henry is Head of Policy & Partnerships at Metaphysic, where he helps shape the company’s approach to developing hyperreal synthetic media technologies ethically.
A world leading expert on deepfakes and synthetic media, Henry’s research has shaped global understanding of synthetic media and its societal impact. He works with governments, companies, law firms, media organisations, and NGOs to address the threats and opportunities these disruptive technologies present, from commercial and cybersecurity strategies to legislation and public policy.
An established media contributor, Henry regularly features in the BBC, The New York Times, Vox, The Guardian, Wired, and The Financial Times.
Previously, Henry was Head of Research Analysis at the world’s first deepfake detection company, Sensity and an Emerging Technologies Researcher at the London based innovation think tank, Nesta.
Mutale Nkonde
CEO & Founder, AI for the People (AFP)
Mutale Nkonde is the leader and founder of AI for the People, a communications firm whose mission is to use art and culture to empower general audiences to combat racial bias in technological design.
Prior to starting AI for the People, Nkonde worked in AI Governance. During that time, she was part of the team that introduced the Algorithmic Accountability Act, the DEEP FAKES Accountability Act, and the No Biometric Barriers to Housing Act, (reintroduced in 2021) to the US House of Representatives in 2019.
Nkonde started her career as a news producer at the BBC in London, is a much sought after commentator on race. In 2019 she published a report on Advancing Racial Literacy in Tech, and her work has been featured in Wired, Washington Post and New York Times. In 2021 Nkonde was part of a news report, on facial recognition and shareholder activism, that was nominated for a New York News Emmy.
Nkonde is currently a fellow at Stanford University's Digital Civil Society Lab, and formerly held fellowships at the Berkman Klein Center of Internet and Society and the Institute of Advanced Study at Notre Dame.
Next generation content creation: The future of entertainment and advertising
VFX and video editing tools have long been the source of the ‘movie magic’ in much of the digital content we consume on a daily basis. As synthetic media continues to become more powerful and accessible, innovative media organizations, creators, and agencies are using the technology to revolutionise the media industry, from branded personalised video messages from famous footballers to synthetic presenters reading your local weather forecast.
In this session, we look at how synthetic media is ushering in a new age of content creation, how the technology will change the future of entertainment and advertising, and how we can navigate some of the ethical challenges the technology presents.
Martin Adams (Moderator)
CEO & Co-founder, Codec
Martin brings more than a decade of experience to play as a speaker, founder, director, and investor in the areas of disruptive technology, innovation and marketing.
Martin is a Co-Founder of Codec.ai (recognised as a ’Top 20 Artificial Intelligence Scaleup' by the UK Government), the Social Media Unit @ UCL and the Digital Leadership Council. Martin is also on the Technology Advisory Board, focusing on internet based business models, for Providence Private Equity.
He has been recognised as one of the UK’s Top 100 Entrepreneurs in the Maserati Top 100 and a Top 50 UK Innovator by Penrose, described as a ‘Marketing Guru’ by the Sunday Times and he speaks internationally on innovation, artificial intelligence, media and marketing and the 'Future of Work.'
Codec.ai named ‘Best Artificial Intelligence Company in Marketing’ at the Cognition X Awards and one of the ‘Hottest Artificial Intelligence Startups in Europe’ by Tech Crunch.
Rob Farnell
Creative Director of User Experience, AI & Voice, BBC
Rob Farnell is Creative Director of User Experience at the BBC. Focusing on voice, ai and emerging experiences. In recent years his team has helped to create the World's first public service voice assistant and created experiences and content using various forms of synthetic media. In parallel he has conducted a piece of research investigating the use of synthetic media, exploring the threats and opportunities it brings for media organisations.
Victor Riparbelli
CEO & Co-founder, Synthesia
Victor Riparbelli is the CEO and co-founder of Synthesia, the world's leading AI video generation platform that makes video creation as easy as writing an email. Simply select your AI presenter, type in your script in one of 40 languages and click create. Your video is ready within minutes. Synthesia is powering a paradigm shift in how we think about media production – from something we record with cameras to something we program with computers. Our vision is to turn the world's text into video.
Prior to founding Synthesia, Victor has been involved in technology entrepreneurship for the last 10 years and has been involved in building products across many industries. His work in the VR/AR sector inspired him to apply similar technologies to video production and in 2017 he co-founded Synthesia with Prof. Matthias Niessner, Prof. Lourdes Agapito and Steffen Tjerrild.
Oliver Feldwick
Head of Innovation, The & Partnership
Oliver Feldwick is The&Partnership’s Head of Innovation. He joined The&Partnership in 2014 and has since worked on accounts including Toyota, Lexus, Mars, NatWest, NewsUK, Centrica, Samsung and Coty. Prior to that he’s worked at agencies like AKQA and BBH. His role looks at the evolving shape of agency models and how technology can help supercharge everything we do.
In 2016, he won the Admap prize with his essay ‘The Uncanny Valley of Personalisation’, and in 2018 he got a distinction in the IPA Excellence Diploma with his paper ‘Unleashing Cyborg Creativity’. In 2020, he won the Atticus Award for his piece on AI, Ethics and Marketing.
Beyond being a massive advertising nerd, he is also a boardgame nerd, keen chef and (mostly) retired runner.
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Making waves: The diverse applications of synthetic voice
For many people, synthetic voice is still synonymous with virtual assistants such as Amazon’s Alexa or basic text to speech applications. However, realistic voice synthesis technology has evolved rapidly in recent years and is poised to revolutionise how we speak and listen, from live translation in video calls and personalised voice personas to voice skins for online gaming and voice to voice translation in Hollywood entertainment.
In this session, we’ll look at the fascinating ways voice synthesis will change the way we communicate and express ourselves, and how pioneers of this technology view the future of voice as an essential part of our identity.
Rupal Patel (Moderator)
CEO & Founder, VocalID
Rupal is the CEO and Founder of VocaliD, a voice technology company that provides AI-generated voices with personality. VocaliD’s award-winning technology leverages the latest advances in machine learning, signal processing and voice analytics along with the company’s crowdsourced Voicebank to create inclusive, diverse and brand aligned voices for organizations and individuals with special needs. Rupal is also the co-founder of AITHOS, a consortium of synthetic media companies committed to ethical and responsible use of technology. Rupal began her career as a speech clinician where she became fascinated with the potential of using speech technologies for assistive communication which then led to a doctorate in speech science. She is currently on leave from Northeastern University where she is a tenured professor in the Khoury College of Computer Sciences and Bouve College of Health Sciences. Named one of The Top 11 Visionaries in Voice 2019 by Voicebot.ai and Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People in Business, Rupal has been featured on TED, NPR, and in major international news and technology publications.
Alex Serdiuk
CEO and Co-founder, Respeecher
Alex founded Respeecher with Dmytro Bielievtsov and Grant Reaber in 2018. Since then the team has been focused on high-fidelity voice cloning. Their technology was the first synthetic speech adopted by big Hollywood productions, starting from 2019. Alex is in charge of Business Development and Strategy. Their primary focus is improving the voice cloning technology in several directions, including the tech democratization to let sound professionals and creators all over the world have the fine tool in their acquaintance. Respeecher works in Feature films and TV projects, Video Games, Animation studios, Localization, media agencies, and others.
Aaron Jones
CEO and Co-founder, Yepic
Aaron Jones is an award-winning entrepreneur working in Artificial Intelligence. Aaron co-founded Yepic AI, whose flagship product vidvoice.ai is a state of the art video translation technology that dubs your lips in real-time. Vid Voice is being used in business meetings, telehealth, live events and film dubbing. It's the first and only service of its kind.
Aaron was recognized in the Queen's Birthday Honors list, making him the youngest person to receive a British Empire Medal for services to Industry. He was also awarded Alumni of the Year 2018 by Essex University and shortlisted for Forbes 30 under 30.
Mike Pappas
CEO and Co-founder, Modulate
Mike Pappas is the CEO/Co-founder of Modulate, which uses machine learning to make online voice chat more immersive and inclusive. Mike’s work at Modulate ranges from developing new partnerships within the industry, monitoring trends and new opportunities for Modulate’s unique technology to have a positive impact, and reinforcing an internal and external culture of passion, respect, and personal growth.
Mike graduated from MIT with a BS in Physics and Applied Mathematics in 2014. Before Modulate, Mike spent time at Bridgewater Associates working on cloud technology until joining Lola Travel as an early employee to learn more about building a startup from an experienced entrepreneur (CEO Paul English, who co-founded Kayak.com.) Outside of work, his passions include philosophizing about group cultures and dynamics, video games, and creating experimental cocktails.
Meme machines: The rise of synthetic media apps
Over the last 18 months, a growing number of smartphone and web apps have made generating synthetic media accessible to everyday people around the world. Attracting hundreds of millions of users, these apps have made personalised and highly memeable synthetic content the talk of social media.
In this session, we’ll discuss the extraordinary rise of synthetic media apps, where the space is moving next, and how developers can design their apps and communities to prevent misuse.
Anna Bulakh (Moderator)
Policy Advisor, Reface
Anna Bulakh is Policy Adviser at Reface, an AI powered app for face-swapping with more than 140 million installs.
Anna has 10 years of experience in security and defence policies. Anna was a Research Fellow at the International Centre for Defence and Security (ICDS) in Tallinn and a Research Assistant at the Prague Security Studies Institute (PSSI). Since 2019, she has also been part of the IT community developing solutions to help combat online disinformation.
Anna is a Co-Founder of Cappture.cc, a start-up funded by the Startup Wise Guys accelerator program, and former Program Director at Disinfo.Tech. In her work, she deals with issues such as tech regulation and diplomacy, tech impact on societal security, information and cyber security, broader national security policies and resilience. Currently, she is engaging with experts and the regulatory community to develop a common approach to the future of AI and synthetic media.
Ben Zion Benkhin
CEO and Co-founder, Wombo
Ben is the founder and CEO of WOMBO, one of the most viral apps in history with over 65m downloads in its first 6 months of existence. In a previous life, he ran and operated a digital design agency, and was the President of the University of Toronto AI club. He’s a massive AI geek, and is excited about finding new ways to use the technology to entertain and excite people all over the world.
Dima Shvets
CEO and Co-founder, Reface
Dima is a VC professional interested in internet technologies, startups, venture capital, and innovations. For five years, he was a Managing Partner of a seed-stage venture capital fund Imperious Group.
Dima is co-founder (since 2019) and CEO (since 2021) at Reface, an AI-powered app to swap faces in the videos, GIFs, and photos in a few seconds, that raised $5,5M by a16z. His focus is to spread a vision of the future of digital content to the world, develop long-term relations with businesses, customers, partners, and investors, implementing innovative tech AI-powered solutions for different industries.
Zach Wener
CEO and Co-founder, Uberduck
Zach Wener is the founder of Uberduck, a synthetic speech company that runs the popular web text to speech app of the same name. Before founding Uberduck, Zach studied at MIT and Stanford and spent years building software for the web in California.
Mike graduated from MIT with a BS in Physics and Applied Mathematics in 2014. Before Modulate, Mike spent time at Bridgewater Associates working on cloud technology until joining Lola Travel as an early employee to learn more about building a startup from an experienced entrepreneur (CEO Paul English, who co-founded Kayak.com.) Outside of work, his passions include philosophizing about group cultures and dynamics, video games, and creating experimental cocktails.
How to copyright: Synthetic media, creativity, and the law
New and innovative technologies often get legal practitioners and researchers talking, and synthetic media is no exception. While many uses of synthetic media are covered by existing legal provisions, others, such as synthetic resurrection and the unauthorized commercial use of someone’s likeness, raise interesting questions relating to image rights, privacy, and intellectual property.
In this session, we’ll look at how creative synthetic media fits into current legal frameworks and where these frameworks may need to adapt in the face of new and emerging uses of the technology.
Tom Graham (Moderator)
CEO & Co-founder, Metaphysic
Tom is the CEO and co-founder of Metaphysic. He is obsessed with old digital cameras, NFTs and all things metaverse. He also founded Omnisci, a GPU in-memory database and analytics company based in SF. Previously, he was a US capital markets attorney in Hong Kong and is originally from Australia.
Kelsey Farish
Media & Technology Lawyer, DAC Beachcroft
Kelsey is a media and technology lawyer at DAC Beachcroft in London, where she supports clients ranging from start-ups to large multinational corporations on their media, technology, and internet law matters. She is one of Europe's leadinglegal experts on deepfakes and manipulated digital content: her scholarship includes advisory work for the European Parliament, and publications in the Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice and for the European Audiovisual Observatory.
Nikki Pope
Sr. Director, AI & Legal Ethics, NVIDIA
Nikki is the head of AI & Legal Ethics at NVIDIA where her current focus is on integrating trustworthy AI principles into the company’s processes. By background she is a lawyer and advocates for criminal justice reform through her nonprofit, The Pruno Fund.
Agnes Venema
Marie Curie Researcher, University of Malta & "Mihai Viteazul" National Intelligence Academy
Marie Curie Researcher, University of Malta & "Mihai Viteazul" National Intelligence Academy Agnes E. Venema is a Marie Curie Researcher on the European Joint Doctorate grant “Evolving Security SciencE through Networked Technologies, Information policy And Law” (ESSENTIAL), pursuing a dual doctorate at the “Mihai Viteazul” National Intelligence Academy in Bucharest, Romania and the University of Malta. Her research area is Intelligence and National Security, specializing in Image Intelligence.Agnes has published on deepfakes in the American Bar Association’s SciTech Lawyer and has provided expert commentary for the media, including for Business Insider, The Times and Politico Europe. She has also used her expertise on deepfakes to inform legal consultations of the New Zealand Parliament Justice Committee, the Law Commission of England and Wales, and the European Parliament.Prior to starting her doctorate, Agnes worked on various issues related to international security and law, including at the University of Essex and for various NGOs. She also worked for on Security Sector Reform at the United Nations Mission in Timor-Leste (UNMIT) and was part of an Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) election monitoring mission.Agnes also holds an LL.M. degree in Human Rights and Criminal Justice from the Irish Centre for Human Rights at NUI Galway and a Bachelor degree from University College Utrecht.
Synthetic foundations: Building the Metaverse
Whether it’s avatars, NFTs, virtual influencers, or digital fashion, synthetic media is behind many of the building blocks of the Metaverse. But how exactly do these blocks fit together and who's helping them take shape?
Against a backdrop of skyrocketing interest in recent months, we’ll explore how the metaverse is making virtual worlds as meaningful as physical ones, and how its many diverse components can be realised responsibly.
Tom Graham (Moderator)
CEO & Co-founder, Metaphysic
Tom is the CEO and co-founder of Metaphysic. He is obsessed with old digital cameras, NFTs and all things metaverse. He also founded Omnisci, a GPU in-memory database and analytics company based in SF. Previously, he was a US capital markets attorney in Hong Kong and is originally from Australia.
Arif Khan
CEO & Co-founder, Alethea AI
Arif Khan is the CEO and co-founder of Alethea AI, a decentralized protocol to create intelligent and interactive NFTs powered by Open AI’s GPT-3 engine. Alethea AI is creating a new NFT standard, termed the Intelligent NFT (iNFT) by embedding AI animation, interaction, and voice synthesis capabilities into NFTs. As creators of the First ever iNFT, Alethea partnered with the leading auction house Sotheby’s to create and auction the first interactive and intelligent NFT, Alice. Alethea’s protocol is backed by leading institutions like Metapurse, Bitkraft, Dapper Labs, Galaxy Interactive, Gemini, Mark Cuban, Crypto.com and Multicoin, IDEO and others.
Arif has been regularly invited to speak at major global events like The World Economic Forum, World Web Forum, and has guest lectured at the Singapore Management University’s MBA program. He is a top writer for Artificial Intelligence on Medium.com and his work has been covered or featured in CBS, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal & The New York Times.
Andrew Durgee
Managing Director, Republic
Andrew entered crypto in early 2010, pioneering early blockchain technology plays including an industry first multi signature wallet repository. Andrew studied Management Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and is a highly skilled executive with over 12 years of experience. Andrew was previously a Partner at a leading blockchain advisory group, TLDR.
Deepfake it till you make it: The viral art of faceswapping
In just under four years, viral face swapping has moved from crudely inserting Nicholas Cage’s face in pop culture movies to breathtaking hyperreal videos that have captivated hundreds of millions viewers.
In this session, we reflect on the evolution of face swapping with the creators who turned it into an artform, tracing their beginnings as hobbyists experimenting with new open source tools to becoming some of the world’s most in demand AI artists.
Henry Ajder (Moderator)
Head of Policy & Partnerships, Metaphysic
Henry is Head of Policy & Partnerships at Metaphysic, where he helps shape the company’s approach to developing hyperreal synthetic media technologies ethically.
A world leading expert on deepfakes and synthetic media, Henry’s research has shaped global understanding of synthetic media and its societal impact. He works with governments, companies, law firms, media organisations, and NGOs to address the threats and opportunities these disruptive technologies present, from commercial and cybersecurity strategies to legislation and public policy.
An established media contributor, Henry regularly features in the BBC, The New York Times, Vox, The Guardian, Wired, and The Financial Times.
Previously, Henry was Head of Research Analysis at the world’s first deepfake detection company, Sensity and an Emerging Technologies Researcher at the London based innovation think tank, Nesta.
Chris Ume
Co-founder, Metaphysic
Chris Ume is co-founder of Metaphysic, and is widely recognized as the world expert in the emerging field of hyper-real videos. Since 2018, Ume’s work has blended a mastery of VFX techniques with evolving AI models. Prior to launching Metaphysic, Ume was a lead creator on South Park’s Sassy Justice series. His commercial productions also include a Gillette throwback ad, Belgian football national ad and more. He first gained notoriety with his DeepTomCruise viral videos, which have been seen over 70M times on TikTok.
Shamook
Synthetic media & VFX artist
Shamook is an AI artist and VFX professional best known for his leading work on deepfakes.
Using the latest and best technology, he creates new alternate realities where you can see your favourite actors in roles they never actually starred in, such as Tom Holland in 2004’s Spiderman or Will Smith as Neo in the Matrix. His videos have attracted over 28m views on YouTube alone, and have received media coverage from around the world.
Dr Fakenstein
Synthetic media & VFX artist
Dr Fakenstein is the pseudonym of New Zealand A.I Artist Jeffery White. He is an early adopter of deepfake technology for synthetic face replacement and has used this tech to create comedic viral videos such as Full House of Mustaches and Mike Tyson as Oprah.
He is also a regular contributor to Jimmy Kimmel Live with various deepfake segments including Trump Toddler and deepfake Rudy Guiliani Christmas message.
White is a team member of DeepVoodoo FX, an A.I Studio founded by South Park's Trey Parker and Matt Stone where projects like Sassy Justice are created.
Just Joking? Deepfakes, satire and the politics of synthetic media
In this session, we delve into deepfakes’ growing use in satire and activism around the world, from mocking authoritarian leaders to synthetically resurrecting victims of injustice to demand action.
Based on findings from an upcoming report from Human Rights organisation WITNESS and the Co-creation Studio at MIT Open Documentary Lab, we’ll explore some of the key questions these often controversial uses of synthetic media raise: How can we distinguish intentional disinformation from clumsy deepfake critique? Who’s fair game to target without consent? When should synthetic satire be labelled and who should be responsible for deciding when it crosses the line?
Kat Cizek (Moderator)
Creative Director, Co-Creation Studio at MIT Open Documentary Lab
Katerina Cizek is a Peabody and two-time Emmy Award-winning documentarian working across emergent platforms. She is the artistic director and co-founder of the Co-Creation Studio at MIT Open Documentary Lab. At the studio she wrote (with Uricchio et al.) the world’s first field study on co-creating media called Collective Wisdom, which is forthcoming from MIT Press. For over a decade, Cizek worked as a documentary director at the National Film Board of Canada, transforming the organization into a world-leading digital hub, with the projects Highrise and Filmmaker-in-Residence. Both community-based and globally recognized, these two ground-breaking long-form digital projects garnered international awards and critical acclaim. Cizek is a member of the Directors’ Guild of Canada, has served as an advisor at CPH:DOX, ESoDoc and the Sundance Institute’s New Frontier Lab and Stories of Change Program. She is a founding member of the Guild of Future Architects, a member of the editorial collective at Immerse and a member of the Interactive Board of Jurors for the Peabody Awards.
Sam Gregory
Programme manager, WITNESS
Sam Gregory is the Program Director of WITNESS, which helps people use video and technology to defend human rights. Sam’s current work focuses on the threats and opportunities as emerging technologies such as AI intersect with disinformation, media manipulation, and rising authoritarianism. An expert on new forms of misinformation and disinformation as well as innovations in preserving trust and authenticity, he leads WITNESS’ global ‘Prepare, Don’t Panic’ work on emerging threats such as deepfakes, emerging solutions such as authenticity and provenance infrastructure, and on new opportunities such as live-streamed and co-present storytelling for action and smartphone witnessing for human rights.
Quoted in major media worldwide, he has spoken at Davos and the White House and publishes frequently on issues in technology and human rights. He is a former Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, and is on the Technology Advisory Board of the ICC. He previously taught from 2010 to 2018 on participatory media and human rights at the Harvard Kennedy School, and co-chaired the Partnership on AI’s Expert Group on AI and the Media.
Henry Ajder
Head of Policy & Partnerships, Metaphysic
Henry is Head of Policy & Partnerships at Metaphysic, where he helps shape the company’s approach to developing hyperreal synthetic media technologies ethically.
A world leading expert on deepfakes and synthetic media, Henry’s research has shaped global understanding of synthetic media and its societal impact. He works with governments, companies, law firms, media organisations, and NGOs to address the threats and opportunities these disruptive technologies present, from commercial and cybersecurity strategies to legislation and public policy.
An established media contributor, Henry regularly features in the BBC, The New York Times, Vox, The Guardian, Wired, and The Financial Times.
Previously, Henry was Head of Research Analysis at the world’s first deepfake detection company, Sensity and an Emerging Technologies Researcher at the London based innovation think tank, Nesta.
Mutale Nkonde
CEO & Founder, AI for the People (AFP)
Mutale Nkonde is the leader and founder of AI for the People, a communications firm whose mission is to use art and culture to empower general audiences to combat racial bias in technological design.
Prior to starting AI for the People, Nkonde worked in AI Governance. During that time, she was part of the team that introduced the Algorithmic Accountability Act, the DEEP FAKES Accountability Act, and the No Biometric Barriers to Housing Act, (reintroduced in 2021) to the US House of Representatives in 2019.
Nkonde started her career as a news producer at the BBC in London, is a much sought after commentator on race. In 2019 she published a report on Advancing Racial Literacy in Tech, and her work has been featured in Wired, Washington Post and New York Times. In 2021 Nkonde was part of a news report, on facial recognition and shareholder activism, that was nominated for a New York News Emmy.
Nkonde is currently a fellow at Stanford University's Digital Civil Society Lab, and formerly held fellowships at the Berkman Klein Center of Internet and Society and the Institute of Advanced Study at Notre Dame.
Next generation content creation: The future of entertainment and advertising
VFX and video editing tools have long been the source of the ‘movie magic’ in much of the digital content we consume on a daily basis. As synthetic media continues to become more powerful and accessible, innovative media organizations, creators, and agencies are using the technology to revolutionise the media industry, from branded personalised video messages from famous footballers to synthetic presenters reading your local weather forecast.
In this session, we look at how synthetic media is ushering in a new age of content creation, how the technology will change the future of entertainment and advertising, and how we can navigate some of the ethical challenges the technology presents.
Martin Adams (Moderator)
CEO & Co-founder, Codec
Martin brings more than a decade of experience to play as a speaker, founder, director, and investor in the areas of disruptive technology, innovation and marketing.
Martin is a Co-Founder of Codec.ai (recognised as a ’Top 20 Artificial Intelligence Scaleup' by the UK Government), the Social Media Unit @ UCL and the Digital Leadership Council. Martin is also on the Technology Advisory Board, focusing on internet based business models, for Providence Private Equity.
He has been recognised as one of the UK’s Top 100 Entrepreneurs in the Maserati Top 100 and a Top 50 UK Innovator by Penrose, described as a ‘Marketing Guru’ by the Sunday Times and he speaks internationally on innovation, artificial intelligence, media and marketing and the 'Future of Work.'
Codec.ai named ‘Best Artificial Intelligence Company in Marketing’ at the Cognition X Awards and one of the ‘Hottest Artificial Intelligence Startups in Europe’ by Tech Crunch.
Rob Farnell
Creative Director of User Experience, AI & Voice, BBC
Rob Farnell is Creative Director of User Experience at the BBC. Focusing on voice, ai and emerging experiences. In recent years his team has helped to create the World's first public service voice assistant and created experiences and content using various forms of synthetic media. In parallel he has conducted a piece of research investigating the use of synthetic media, exploring the threats and opportunities it brings for media organisations.
Victor Riparbelli
CEO & Co-founder, Synthesia
Victor Riparbelli is the CEO and co-founder of Synthesia, the world's leading AI video generation platform that makes video creation as easy as writing an email. Simply select your AI presenter, type in your script in one of 40 languages and click create. Your video is ready within minutes. Synthesia is powering a paradigm shift in how we think about media production – from something we record with cameras to something we program with computers. Our vision is to turn the world's text into video.
Prior to founding Synthesia, Victor has been involved in technology entrepreneurship for the last 10 years and has been involved in building products across many industries. His work in the VR/AR sector inspired him to apply similar technologies to video production and in 2017 he co-founded Synthesia with Prof. Matthias Niessner, Prof. Lourdes Agapito and Steffen Tjerrild.
Oliver Feldwick
Head of Innovation, The & Partnership
Oliver Feldwick is The&Partnership’s Head of Innovation. He joined The&Partnership in 2014 and has since worked on accounts including Toyota, Lexus, Mars, NatWest, NewsUK, Centrica, Samsung and Coty. Prior to that he’s worked at agencies like AKQA and BBH. His role looks at the evolving shape of agency models and how technology can help supercharge everything we do.
In 2016, he won the Admap prize with his essay ‘The Uncanny Valley of Personalisation’, and in 2018 he got a distinction in the IPA Excellence Diploma with his paper ‘Unleashing Cyborg Creativity’. In 2020, he won the Atticus Award for his piece on AI, Ethics and Marketing.
Beyond being a massive advertising nerd, he is also a boardgame nerd, keen chef and (mostly) retired runner.
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Making waves: The diverse applications of synthetic voice
For many people, synthetic voice is still synonymous with virtual assistants such as Amazon’s Alexa or basic text to speech applications. However, realistic voice synthesis technology has evolved rapidly in recent years and is poised to revolutionise how we speak and listen, from live translation in video calls and personalised voice personas to voice skins for online gaming and voice to voice translation in Hollywood entertainment.
In this session, we’ll look at the fascinating ways voice synthesis will change the way we communicate and express ourselves, and how pioneers of this technology view the future of voice as an essential part of our identity.
Rupal Patel (Moderator)
CEO & Founder, VocalID
Rupal is the CEO and Founder of VocaliD, a voice technology company that provides AI-generated voices with personality. VocaliD’s award-winning technology leverages the latest advances in machine learning, signal processing and voice analytics along with the company’s crowdsourced Voicebank to create inclusive, diverse and brand aligned voices for organizations and individuals with special needs. Rupal is also the co-founder of AITHOS, a consortium of synthetic media companies committed to ethical and responsible use of technology. Rupal began her career as a speech clinician where she became fascinated with the potential of using speech technologies for assistive communication which then led to a doctorate in speech science. She is currently on leave from Northeastern University where she is a tenured professor in the Khoury College of Computer Sciences and Bouve College of Health Sciences. Named one of The Top 11 Visionaries in Voice 2019 by Voicebot.ai and Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People in Business, Rupal has been featured on TED, NPR, and in major international news and technology publications.
Alex Serdiuk
CEO and Co-founder, Respeecher
Alex founded Respeecher with Dmytro Bielievtsov and Grant Reaber in 2018. Since then the team has been focused on high-fidelity voice cloning. Their technology was the first synthetic speech adopted by big Hollywood productions, starting from 2019. Alex is in charge of Business Development and Strategy. Their primary focus is improving the voice cloning technology in several directions, including the tech democratization to let sound professionals and creators all over the world have the fine tool in their acquaintance. Respeecher works in Feature films and TV projects, Video Games, Animation studios, Localization, media agencies, and others.
Aaron Jones
CEO and Co-founder, Yepic
Aaron Jones is an award-winning entrepreneur working in Artificial Intelligence. Aaron co-founded Yepic AI, whose flagship product vidvoice.ai is a state of the art video translation technology that dubs your lips in real-time. Vid Voice is being used in business meetings, telehealth, live events and film dubbing. It's the first and only service of its kind.
Aaron was recognized in the Queen's Birthday Honors list, making him the youngest person to receive a British Empire Medal for services to Industry. He was also awarded Alumni of the Year 2018 by Essex University and shortlisted for Forbes 30 under 30.
Mike Pappas
CEO and Co-founder, Modulate
Mike Pappas is the CEO/Co-founder of Modulate, which uses machine learning to make online voice chat more immersive and inclusive. Mike’s work at Modulate ranges from developing new partnerships within the industry, monitoring trends and new opportunities for Modulate’s unique technology to have a positive impact, and reinforcing an internal and external culture of passion, respect, and personal growth.
Mike graduated from MIT with a BS in Physics and Applied Mathematics in 2014. Before Modulate, Mike spent time at Bridgewater Associates working on cloud technology until joining Lola Travel as an early employee to learn more about building a startup from an experienced entrepreneur (CEO Paul English, who co-founded Kayak.com.) Outside of work, his passions include philosophizing about group cultures and dynamics, video games, and creating experimental cocktails.
Meme machines: The rise of synthetic media apps
Over the last 18 months, a growing number of smartphone and web apps have made generating synthetic media accessible to everyday people around the world. Attracting hundreds of millions of users, these apps have made personalised and highly memeable synthetic content the talk of social media.
In this session, we’ll discuss the extraordinary rise of synthetic media apps, where the space is moving next, and how developers can design their apps and communities to prevent misuse.
Anna Bulakh (Moderator)
Policy Advisor, Reface
Anna Bulakh is Policy Adviser at Reface, an AI powered app for face-swapping with more than 140 million installs.
Anna has 10 years of experience in security and defence policies. Anna was a Research Fellow at the International Centre for Defence and Security (ICDS) in Tallinn and a Research Assistant at the Prague Security Studies Institute (PSSI). Since 2019, she has also been part of the IT community developing solutions to help combat online disinformation.
Anna is a Co-Founder of Cappture.cc, a start-up funded by the Startup Wise Guys accelerator program, and former Program Director at Disinfo.Tech. In her work, she deals with issues such as tech regulation and diplomacy, tech impact on societal security, information and cyber security, broader national security policies and resilience. Currently, she is engaging with experts and the regulatory community to develop a common approach to the future of AI and synthetic media.
Ben Zion Benkhin
CEO and Co-founder, Wombo
Ben is the founder and CEO of WOMBO, one of the most viral apps in history with over 65m downloads in its first 6 months of existence. In a previous life, he ran and operated a digital design agency, and was the President of the University of Toronto AI club. He’s a massive AI geek, and is excited about finding new ways to use the technology to entertain and excite people all over the world.
Dima Shvets
CEO and Co-founder, Reface
Dima is a VC professional interested in internet technologies, startups, venture capital, and innovations. For five years, he was a Managing Partner of a seed-stage venture capital fund Imperious Group.
Dima is co-founder (since 2019) and CEO (since 2021) at Reface, an AI-powered app to swap faces in the videos, GIFs, and photos in a few seconds, that raised $5,5M by a16z. His focus is to spread a vision of the future of digital content to the world, develop long-term relations with businesses, customers, partners, and investors, implementing innovative tech AI-powered solutions for different industries.
Zach Wener
CEO and Co-founder, Uberduck
Zach Wener is the founder of Uberduck, a synthetic speech company that runs the popular web text to speech app of the same name. Before founding Uberduck, Zach studied at MIT and Stanford and spent years building software for the web in California.
Mike graduated from MIT with a BS in Physics and Applied Mathematics in 2014. Before Modulate, Mike spent time at Bridgewater Associates working on cloud technology until joining Lola Travel as an early employee to learn more about building a startup from an experienced entrepreneur (CEO Paul English, who co-founded Kayak.com.) Outside of work, his passions include philosophizing about group cultures and dynamics, video games, and creating experimental cocktails.
How to copyright: Synthetic media, creativity, and the law
New and innovative technologies often get legal practitioners and researchers talking, and synthetic media is no exception. While many uses of synthetic media are covered by existing legal provisions, others, such as synthetic resurrection and the unauthorized commercial use of someone’s likeness, raise interesting questions relating to image rights, privacy, and intellectual property.
In this session, we’ll look at how creative synthetic media fits into current legal frameworks and where these frameworks may need to adapt in the face of new and emerging uses of the technology.
Tom Graham (Moderator)
CEO & Co-founder, Metaphysic
Tom is the CEO and co-founder of Metaphysic. He is obsessed with old digital cameras, NFTs and all things metaverse. He also founded Omnisci, a GPU in-memory database and analytics company based in SF. Previously, he was a US capital markets attorney in Hong Kong and is originally from Australia.
Kelsey Farish
Media & Technology Lawyer, DAC Beachcroft
Kelsey is a media and technology lawyer at DAC Beachcroft in London, where she supports clients ranging from start-ups to large multinational corporations on their media, technology, and internet law matters. She is one of Europe's leadinglegal experts on deepfakes and manipulated digital content: her scholarship includes advisory work for the European Parliament, and publications in the Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice and for the European Audiovisual Observatory.
Nikki Pope
Sr. Director, AI & Legal Ethics, NVIDIA
Nikki is the head of AI & Legal Ethics at NVIDIA where her current focus is on integrating trustworthy AI principles into the company’s processes. By background she is a lawyer and advocates for criminal justice reform through her nonprofit, The Pruno Fund.
Agnes Venema
Marie Curie Researcher, University of Malta & "Mihai Viteazul" National Intelligence Academy
Marie Curie Researcher, University of Malta & "Mihai Viteazul" National Intelligence Academy Agnes E. Venema is a Marie Curie Researcher on the European Joint Doctorate grant “Evolving Security SciencE through Networked Technologies, Information policy And Law” (ESSENTIAL), pursuing a dual doctorate at the “Mihai Viteazul” National Intelligence Academy in Bucharest, Romania and the University of Malta. Her research area is Intelligence and National Security, specializing in Image Intelligence.Agnes has published on deepfakes in the American Bar Association’s SciTech Lawyer and has provided expert commentary for the media, including for Business Insider, The Times and Politico Europe. She has also used her expertise on deepfakes to inform legal consultations of the New Zealand Parliament Justice Committee, the Law Commission of England and Wales, and the European Parliament.Prior to starting her doctorate, Agnes worked on various issues related to international security and law, including at the University of Essex and for various NGOs. She also worked for on Security Sector Reform at the United Nations Mission in Timor-Leste (UNMIT) and was part of an Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) election monitoring mission.Agnes also holds an LL.M. degree in Human Rights and Criminal Justice from the Irish Centre for Human Rights at NUI Galway and a Bachelor degree from University College Utrecht.
Synthetic foundations: Building the Metaverse
Whether it’s avatars, NFTs, virtual influencers, or digital fashion, synthetic media is behind many of the building blocks of the Metaverse. But how exactly do these blocks fit together and who's helping them take shape?
Against a backdrop of skyrocketing interest in recent months, we’ll explore how the metaverse is making virtual worlds as meaningful as physical ones, and how its many diverse components can be realised responsibly.
Tom Graham (Moderator)
CEO & Co-founder, Metaphysic
Tom is the CEO and co-founder of Metaphysic. He is obsessed with old digital cameras, NFTs and all things metaverse. He also founded Omnisci, a GPU in-memory database and analytics company based in SF. Previously, he was a US capital markets attorney in Hong Kong and is originally from Australia.
Arif Khan
CEO & Co-founder, Alethea AI
Arif Khan is the CEO and co-founder of Alethea AI, a decentralized protocol to create intelligent and interactive NFTs powered by Open AI’s GPT-3 engine. Alethea AI is creating a new NFT standard, termed the Intelligent NFT (iNFT) by embedding AI animation, interaction, and voice synthesis capabilities into NFTs. As creators of the First ever iNFT, Alethea partnered with the leading auction house Sotheby’s to create and auction the first interactive and intelligent NFT, Alice. Alethea’s protocol is backed by leading institutions like Metapurse, Bitkraft, Dapper Labs, Galaxy Interactive, Gemini, Mark Cuban, Crypto.com and Multicoin, IDEO and others.
Arif has been regularly invited to speak at major global events like The World Economic Forum, World Web Forum, and has guest lectured at the Singapore Management University’s MBA program. He is a top writer for Artificial Intelligence on Medium.com and his work has been covered or featured in CBS, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal & The New York Times.
Andrew Durgee
Managing Director, Republic
Andrew entered crypto in early 2010, pioneering early blockchain technology plays including an industry first multi signature wallet repository. Andrew studied Management Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and is a highly skilled executive with over 12 years of experience. Andrew was previously a Partner at a leading blockchain advisory group, TLDR.
Deepfake it till you make it: The viral art of faceswapping
In just under four years, viral face swapping has moved from crudely inserting Nicholas Cage’s face in pop culture movies to breathtaking hyperreal videos that have captivated hundreds of millions viewers.
In this session, we reflect on the evolution of face swapping with the creators who turned it into an artform, tracing their beginnings as hobbyists experimenting with new open source tools to becoming some of the world’s most in demand AI artists.
Henry Ajder (Moderator)
Head of Policy & Partnerships, Metaphysic
Henry is Head of Policy & Partnerships at Metaphysic, where he helps shape the company’s approach to developing hyperreal synthetic media technologies ethically.
A world leading expert on deepfakes and synthetic media, Henry’s research has shaped global understanding of synthetic media and its societal impact. He works with governments, companies, law firms, media organisations, and NGOs to address the threats and opportunities these disruptive technologies present, from commercial and cybersecurity strategies to legislation and public policy.
An established media contributor, Henry regularly features in the BBC, The New York Times, Vox, The Guardian, Wired, and The Financial Times.
Previously, Henry was Head of Research Analysis at the world’s first deepfake detection company, Sensity and an Emerging Technologies Researcher at the London based innovation think tank, Nesta.
Chris Ume
Co-founder, Metaphysic
Chris Ume is co-founder of Metaphysic, and is widely recognized as the world expert in the emerging field of hyper-real videos. Since 2018, Ume’s work has blended a mastery of VFX techniques with evolving AI models. Prior to launching Metaphysic, Ume was a lead creator on South Park’s Sassy Justice series. His commercial productions also include a Gillette throwback ad, Belgian football national ad and more. He first gained notoriety with his DeepTomCruise viral videos, which have been seen over 70M times on TikTok.
Shamook
Synthetic media & VFX artist
Shamook is an AI artist and VFX professional best known for his leading work on deepfakes.
Using the latest and best technology, he creates new alternate realities where you can see your favourite actors in roles they never actually starred in, such as Tom Holland in 2004’s Spiderman or Will Smith as Neo in the Matrix. His videos have attracted over 28m views on YouTube alone, and have received media coverage from around the world.
Dr Fakenstein
Synthetic media & VFX artist
Dr Fakenstein is the pseudonym of New Zealand A.I Artist Jeffery White. He is an early adopter of deepfake technology for synthetic face replacement and has used this tech to create comedic viral videos such as Full House of Mustaches and Mike Tyson as Oprah.
He is also a regular contributor to Jimmy Kimmel Live with various deepfake segments including Trump Toddler and deepfake Rudy Guiliani Christmas message.
White is a team member of DeepVoodoo FX, an A.I Studio founded by South Park's Trey Parker and Matt Stone where projects like Sassy Justice are created.
Just Joking? Deepfakes, satire and the politics of synthetic media
In this session, we delve into deepfakes’ growing use in satire and activism around the world, from mocking authoritarian leaders to synthetically resurrecting victims of injustice to demand action.
Based on findings from an upcoming report from Human Rights organisation WITNESS and the Co-creation Studio at MIT Open Documentary Lab, we’ll explore some of the key questions these often controversial uses of synthetic media raise: How can we distinguish intentional disinformation from clumsy deepfake critique? Who’s fair game to target without consent? When should synthetic satire be labelled and who should be responsible for deciding when it crosses the line?
Kat Cizek (Moderator)
Creative Director, Co-Creation Studio at MIT Open Documentary Lab
Katerina Cizek is a Peabody and two-time Emmy Award-winning documentarian working across emergent platforms. She is the artistic director and co-founder of the Co-Creation Studio at MIT Open Documentary Lab. At the studio she wrote (with Uricchio et al.) the world’s first field study on co-creating media called Collective Wisdom, which is forthcoming from MIT Press. For over a decade, Cizek worked as a documentary director at the National Film Board of Canada, transforming the organization into a world-leading digital hub, with the projects Highrise and Filmmaker-in-Residence. Both community-based and globally recognized, these two ground-breaking long-form digital projects garnered international awards and critical acclaim. Cizek is a member of the Directors’ Guild of Canada, has served as an advisor at CPH:DOX, ESoDoc and the Sundance Institute’s New Frontier Lab and Stories of Change Program. She is a founding member of the Guild of Future Architects, a member of the editorial collective at Immerse and a member of the Interactive Board of Jurors for the Peabody Awards.
Sam Gregory
Programme manager, WITNESS
Sam Gregory is the Program Director of WITNESS, which helps people use video and technology to defend human rights. Sam’s current work focuses on the threats and opportunities as emerging technologies such as AI intersect with disinformation, media manipulation, and rising authoritarianism. An expert on new forms of misinformation and disinformation as well as innovations in preserving trust and authenticity, he leads WITNESS’ global ‘Prepare, Don’t Panic’ work on emerging threats such as deepfakes, emerging solutions such as authenticity and provenance infrastructure, and on new opportunities such as live-streamed and co-present storytelling for action and smartphone witnessing for human rights.
Quoted in major media worldwide, he has spoken at Davos and the White House and publishes frequently on issues in technology and human rights. He is a former Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, and is on the Technology Advisory Board of the ICC. He previously taught from 2010 to 2018 on participatory media and human rights at the Harvard Kennedy School, and co-chaired the Partnership on AI’s Expert Group on AI and the Media.
Henry Ajder
Head of Policy & Partnerships, Metaphysic
Henry is Head of Policy & Partnerships at Metaphysic, where he helps shape the company’s approach to developing hyperreal synthetic media technologies ethically.
A world leading expert on deepfakes and synthetic media, Henry’s research has shaped global understanding of synthetic media and its societal impact. He works with governments, companies, law firms, media organisations, and NGOs to address the threats and opportunities these disruptive technologies present, from commercial and cybersecurity strategies to legislation and public policy.
An established media contributor, Henry regularly features in the BBC, The New York Times, Vox, The Guardian, Wired, and The Financial Times.
Previously, Henry was Head of Research Analysis at the world’s first deepfake detection company, Sensity and an Emerging Technologies Researcher at the London based innovation think tank, Nesta.
Mutale Nkonde
CEO & Founder, AI for the People (AFP)
Mutale Nkonde is the leader and founder of AI for the People, a communications firm whose mission is to use art and culture to empower general audiences to combat racial bias in technological design.
Prior to starting AI for the People, Nkonde worked in AI Governance. During that time, she was part of the team that introduced the Algorithmic Accountability Act, the DEEP FAKES Accountability Act, and the No Biometric Barriers to Housing Act, (reintroduced in 2021) to the US House of Representatives in 2019.
Nkonde started her career as a news producer at the BBC in London, is a much sought after commentator on race. In 2019 she published a report on Advancing Racial Literacy in Tech, and her work has been featured in Wired, Washington Post and New York Times. In 2021 Nkonde was part of a news report, on facial recognition and shareholder activism, that was nominated for a New York News Emmy.
Nkonde is currently a fellow at Stanford University's Digital Civil Society Lab, and formerly held fellowships at the Berkman Klein Center of Internet and Society and the Institute of Advanced Study at Notre Dame.
Next generation content creation: The future of entertainment and advertising
VFX and video editing tools have long been the source of the ‘movie magic’ in much of the digital content we consume on a daily basis. As synthetic media continues to become more powerful and accessible, innovative media organizations, creators, and agencies are using the technology to revolutionise the media industry, from branded personalised video messages from famous footballers to synthetic presenters reading your local weather forecast.
In this session, we look at how synthetic media is ushering in a new age of content creation, how the technology will change the future of entertainment and advertising, and how we can navigate some of the ethical challenges the technology presents.
Martin Adams (Moderator)
CEO & Co-founder, Codec
Martin brings more than a decade of experience to play as a speaker, founder, director, and investor in the areas of disruptive technology, innovation and marketing.
Martin is a Co-Founder of Codec.ai (recognised as a ’Top 20 Artificial Intelligence Scaleup' by the UK Government), the Social Media Unit @ UCL and the Digital Leadership Council. Martin is also on the Technology Advisory Board, focusing on internet based business models, for Providence Private Equity.
He has been recognised as one of the UK’s Top 100 Entrepreneurs in the Maserati Top 100 and a Top 50 UK Innovator by Penrose, described as a ‘Marketing Guru’ by the Sunday Times and he speaks internationally on innovation, artificial intelligence, media and marketing and the 'Future of Work.'
Codec.ai named ‘Best Artificial Intelligence Company in Marketing’ at the Cognition X Awards and one of the ‘Hottest Artificial Intelligence Startups in Europe’ by Tech Crunch.
Rob Farnell
Creative Director of User Experience, AI & Voice, BBC
Rob Farnell is Creative Director of User Experience at the BBC. Focusing on voice, ai and emerging experiences. In recent years his team has helped to create the World's first public service voice assistant and created experiences and content using various forms of synthetic media. In parallel he has conducted a piece of research investigating the use of synthetic media, exploring the threats and opportunities it brings for media organisations.
Victor Riparbelli
CEO & Co-founder, Synthesia
Victor Riparbelli is the CEO and co-founder of Synthesia, the world's leading AI video generation platform that makes video creation as easy as writing an email. Simply select your AI presenter, type in your script in one of 40 languages and click create. Your video is ready within minutes. Synthesia is powering a paradigm shift in how we think about media production – from something we record with cameras to something we program with computers. Our vision is to turn the world's text into video.
Prior to founding Synthesia, Victor has been involved in technology entrepreneurship for the last 10 years and has been involved in building products across many industries. His work in the VR/AR sector inspired him to apply similar technologies to video production and in 2017 he co-founded Synthesia with Prof. Matthias Niessner, Prof. Lourdes Agapito and Steffen Tjerrild.
Oliver Feldwick
Head of Innovation, The & Partnership
Oliver Feldwick is The&Partnership’s Head of Innovation. He joined The&Partnership in 2014 and has since worked on accounts including Toyota, Lexus, Mars, NatWest, NewsUK, Centrica, Samsung and Coty. Prior to that he’s worked at agencies like AKQA and BBH. His role looks at the evolving shape of agency models and how technology can help supercharge everything we do.
In 2016, he won the Admap prize with his essay ‘The Uncanny Valley of Personalisation’, and in 2018 he got a distinction in the IPA Excellence Diploma with his paper ‘Unleashing Cyborg Creativity’. In 2020, he won the Atticus Award for his piece on AI, Ethics and Marketing.
Beyond being a massive advertising nerd, he is also a boardgame nerd, keen chef and (mostly) retired runner.
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Making waves: The diverse applications of synthetic voice
For many people, synthetic voice is still synonymous with virtual assistants such as Amazon’s Alexa or basic text to speech applications. However, realistic voice synthesis technology has evolved rapidly in recent years and is poised to revolutionise how we speak and listen, from live translation in video calls and personalised voice personas to voice skins for online gaming and voice to voice translation in Hollywood entertainment.
In this session, we’ll look at the fascinating ways voice synthesis will change the way we communicate and express ourselves, and how pioneers of this technology view the future of voice as an essential part of our identity.
Rupal Patel (Moderator)
CEO & Founder, VocalID
Rupal is the CEO and Founder of VocaliD, a voice technology company that provides AI-generated voices with personality. VocaliD’s award-winning technology leverages the latest advances in machine learning, signal processing and voice analytics along with the company’s crowdsourced Voicebank to create inclusive, diverse and brand aligned voices for organizations and individuals with special needs. Rupal is also the co-founder of AITHOS, a consortium of synthetic media companies committed to ethical and responsible use of technology. Rupal began her career as a speech clinician where she became fascinated with the potential of using speech technologies for assistive communication which then led to a doctorate in speech science. She is currently on leave from Northeastern University where she is a tenured professor in the Khoury College of Computer Sciences and Bouve College of Health Sciences. Named one of The Top 11 Visionaries in Voice 2019 by Voicebot.ai and Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People in Business, Rupal has been featured on TED, NPR, and in major international news and technology publications.
Alex Serdiuk
CEO and Co-founder, Respeecher
Alex founded Respeecher with Dmytro Bielievtsov and Grant Reaber in 2018. Since then the team has been focused on high-fidelity voice cloning. Their technology was the first synthetic speech adopted by big Hollywood productions, starting from 2019. Alex is in charge of Business Development and Strategy. Their primary focus is improving the voice cloning technology in several directions, including the tech democratization to let sound professionals and creators all over the world have the fine tool in their acquaintance. Respeecher works in Feature films and TV projects, Video Games, Animation studios, Localization, media agencies, and others.
Aaron Jones
CEO and Co-founder, Yepic
Aaron Jones is an award-winning entrepreneur working in Artificial Intelligence. Aaron co-founded Yepic AI, whose flagship product vidvoice.ai is a state of the art video translation technology that dubs your lips in real-time. Vid Voice is being used in business meetings, telehealth, live events and film dubbing. It's the first and only service of its kind.
Aaron was recognized in the Queen's Birthday Honors list, making him the youngest person to receive a British Empire Medal for services to Industry. He was also awarded Alumni of the Year 2018 by Essex University and shortlisted for Forbes 30 under 30.
Mike Pappas
CEO and Co-founder, Modulate
Mike Pappas is the CEO/Co-founder of Modulate, which uses machine learning to make online voice chat more immersive and inclusive. Mike’s work at Modulate ranges from developing new partnerships within the industry, monitoring trends and new opportunities for Modulate’s unique technology to have a positive impact, and reinforcing an internal and external culture of passion, respect, and personal growth.
Mike graduated from MIT with a BS in Physics and Applied Mathematics in 2014. Before Modulate, Mike spent time at Bridgewater Associates working on cloud technology until joining Lola Travel as an early employee to learn more about building a startup from an experienced entrepreneur (CEO Paul English, who co-founded Kayak.com.) Outside of work, his passions include philosophizing about group cultures and dynamics, video games, and creating experimental cocktails.
Meme machines: The rise of synthetic media apps
Over the last 18 months, a growing number of smartphone and web apps have made generating synthetic media accessible to everyday people around the world. Attracting hundreds of millions of users, these apps have made personalised and highly memeable synthetic content the talk of social media.
In this session, we’ll discuss the extraordinary rise of synthetic media apps, where the space is moving next, and how developers can design their apps and communities to prevent misuse.
Anna Bulakh (Moderator)
Policy Advisor, Reface
Anna Bulakh is Policy Adviser at Reface, an AI powered app for face-swapping with more than 140 million installs.
Anna has 10 years of experience in security and defence policies. Anna was a Research Fellow at the International Centre for Defence and Security (ICDS) in Tallinn and a Research Assistant at the Prague Security Studies Institute (PSSI). Since 2019, she has also been part of the IT community developing solutions to help combat online disinformation.
Anna is a Co-Founder of Cappture.cc, a start-up funded by the Startup Wise Guys accelerator program, and former Program Director at Disinfo.Tech. In her work, she deals with issues such as tech regulation and diplomacy, tech impact on societal security, information and cyber security, broader national security policies and resilience. Currently, she is engaging with experts and the regulatory community to develop a common approach to the future of AI and synthetic media.
Ben Zion Benkhin
CEO and Co-founder, Wombo
Ben is the founder and CEO of WOMBO, one of the most viral apps in history with over 65m downloads in its first 6 months of existence. In a previous life, he ran and operated a digital design agency, and was the President of the University of Toronto AI club. He’s a massive AI geek, and is excited about finding new ways to use the technology to entertain and excite people all over the world.
Dima Shvets
CEO and Co-founder, Reface
Dima is a VC professional interested in internet technologies, startups, venture capital, and innovations. For five years, he was a Managing Partner of a seed-stage venture capital fund Imperious Group.
Dima is co-founder (since 2019) and CEO (since 2021) at Reface, an AI-powered app to swap faces in the videos, GIFs, and photos in a few seconds, that raised $5,5M by a16z. His focus is to spread a vision of the future of digital content to the world, develop long-term relations with businesses, customers, partners, and investors, implementing innovative tech AI-powered solutions for different industries.
Zach Wener
CEO and Co-founder, Uberduck
Zach Wener is the founder of Uberduck, a synthetic speech company that runs the popular web text to speech app of the same name. Before founding Uberduck, Zach studied at MIT and Stanford and spent years building software for the web in California.
Mike graduated from MIT with a BS in Physics and Applied Mathematics in 2014. Before Modulate, Mike spent time at Bridgewater Associates working on cloud technology until joining Lola Travel as an early employee to learn more about building a startup from an experienced entrepreneur (CEO Paul English, who co-founded Kayak.com.) Outside of work, his passions include philosophizing about group cultures and dynamics, video games, and creating experimental cocktails.
How to copyright: Synthetic media, creativity, and the law
New and innovative technologies often get legal practitioners and researchers talking, and synthetic media is no exception. While many uses of synthetic media are covered by existing legal provisions, others, such as synthetic resurrection and the unauthorized commercial use of someone’s likeness, raise interesting questions relating to image rights, privacy, and intellectual property.
In this session, we’ll look at how creative synthetic media fits into current legal frameworks and where these frameworks may need to adapt in the face of new and emerging uses of the technology.
Tom Graham (Moderator)
CEO & Co-founder, Metaphysic
Tom is the CEO and co-founder of Metaphysic. He is obsessed with old digital cameras, NFTs and all things metaverse. He also founded Omnisci, a GPU in-memory database and analytics company based in SF. Previously, he was a US capital markets attorney in Hong Kong and is originally from Australia.
Kelsey Farish
Media & Technology Lawyer, DAC Beachcroft
Kelsey is a media and technology lawyer at DAC Beachcroft in London, where she supports clients ranging from start-ups to large multinational corporations on their media, technology, and internet law matters. She is one of Europe's leadinglegal experts on deepfakes and manipulated digital content: her scholarship includes advisory work for the European Parliament, and publications in the Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice and for the European Audiovisual Observatory.
Nikki Pope
Sr. Director, AI & Legal Ethics, NVIDIA
Nikki is the head of AI & Legal Ethics at NVIDIA where her current focus is on integrating trustworthy AI principles into the company’s processes. By background she is a lawyer and advocates for criminal justice reform through her nonprofit, The Pruno Fund.
Agnes Venema
Marie Curie Researcher, University of Malta & "Mihai Viteazul" National Intelligence Academy
Marie Curie Researcher, University of Malta & "Mihai Viteazul" National Intelligence Academy Agnes E. Venema is a Marie Curie Researcher on the European Joint Doctorate grant “Evolving Security SciencE through Networked Technologies, Information policy And Law” (ESSENTIAL), pursuing a dual doctorate at the “Mihai Viteazul” National Intelligence Academy in Bucharest, Romania and the University of Malta. Her research area is Intelligence and National Security, specializing in Image Intelligence.Agnes has published on deepfakes in the American Bar Association’s SciTech Lawyer and has provided expert commentary for the media, including for Business Insider, The Times and Politico Europe. She has also used her expertise on deepfakes to inform legal consultations of the New Zealand Parliament Justice Committee, the Law Commission of England and Wales, and the European Parliament.Prior to starting her doctorate, Agnes worked on various issues related to international security and law, including at the University of Essex and for various NGOs. She also worked for on Security Sector Reform at the United Nations Mission in Timor-Leste (UNMIT) and was part of an Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) election monitoring mission.Agnes also holds an LL.M. degree in Human Rights and Criminal Justice from the Irish Centre for Human Rights at NUI Galway and a Bachelor degree from University College Utrecht.
Synthetic foundations: Building the Metaverse
Whether it’s avatars, NFTs, virtual influencers, or digital fashion, synthetic media is behind many of the building blocks of the Metaverse. But how exactly do these blocks fit together and who's helping them take shape?
Against a backdrop of skyrocketing interest in recent months, we’ll explore how the metaverse is making virtual worlds as meaningful as physical ones, and how its many diverse components can be realised responsibly.
Tom Graham (Moderator)
CEO & Co-founder, Metaphysic
Tom is the CEO and co-founder of Metaphysic. He is obsessed with old digital cameras, NFTs and all things metaverse. He also founded Omnisci, a GPU in-memory database and analytics company based in SF. Previously, he was a US capital markets attorney in Hong Kong and is originally from Australia.
Arif Khan
CEO & Co-founder, Alethea AI
Arif Khan is the CEO and co-founder of Alethea AI, a decentralized protocol to create intelligent and interactive NFTs powered by Open AI’s GPT-3 engine. Alethea AI is creating a new NFT standard, termed the Intelligent NFT (iNFT) by embedding AI animation, interaction, and voice synthesis capabilities into NFTs. As creators of the First ever iNFT, Alethea partnered with the leading auction house Sotheby’s to create and auction the first interactive and intelligent NFT, Alice. Alethea’s protocol is backed by leading institutions like Metapurse, Bitkraft, Dapper Labs, Galaxy Interactive, Gemini, Mark Cuban, Crypto.com and Multicoin, IDEO and others.
Arif has been regularly invited to speak at major global events like The World Economic Forum, World Web Forum, and has guest lectured at the Singapore Management University’s MBA program. He is a top writer for Artificial Intelligence on Medium.com and his work has been covered or featured in CBS, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal & The New York Times.
Andrew Durgee
Managing Director, Republic
Andrew entered crypto in early 2010, pioneering early blockchain technology plays including an industry first multi signature wallet repository. Andrew studied Management Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and is a highly skilled executive with over 12 years of experience. Andrew was previously a Partner at a leading blockchain advisory group, TLDR.
Deepfake it till you make it: The viral art of faceswapping
In just under four years, viral face swapping has moved from crudely inserting Nicholas Cage’s face in pop culture movies to breathtaking hyperreal videos that have captivated hundreds of millions viewers.
In this session, we reflect on the evolution of face swapping with the creators who turned it into an artform, tracing their beginnings as hobbyists experimenting with new open source tools to becoming some of the world’s most in demand AI artists.
Henry Ajder (Moderator)
Head of Policy & Partnerships, Metaphysic
Henry is Head of Policy & Partnerships at Metaphysic, where he helps shape the company’s approach to developing hyperreal synthetic media technologies ethically.
A world leading expert on deepfakes and synthetic media, Henry’s research has shaped global understanding of synthetic media and its societal impact. He works with governments, companies, law firms, media organisations, and NGOs to address the threats and opportunities these disruptive technologies present, from commercial and cybersecurity strategies to legislation and public policy.
An established media contributor, Henry regularly features in the BBC, The New York Times, Vox, The Guardian, Wired, and The Financial Times.
Previously, Henry was Head of Research Analysis at the world’s first deepfake detection company, Sensity and an Emerging Technologies Researcher at the London based innovation think tank, Nesta.
Chris Ume
Co-founder, Metaphysic
Chris Ume is co-founder of Metaphysic, and is widely recognized as the world expert in the emerging field of hyper-real videos. Since 2018, Ume’s work has blended a mastery of VFX techniques with evolving AI models. Prior to launching Metaphysic, Ume was a lead creator on South Park’s Sassy Justice series. His commercial productions also include a Gillette throwback ad, Belgian football national ad and more. He first gained notoriety with his DeepTomCruise viral videos, which have been seen over 70M times on TikTok.
Shamook
Synthetic media & VFX artist
Shamook is an AI artist and VFX professional best known for his leading work on deepfakes.
Using the latest and best technology, he creates new alternate realities where you can see your favourite actors in roles they never actually starred in, such as Tom Holland in 2004’s Spiderman or Will Smith as Neo in the Matrix. His videos have attracted over 28m views on YouTube alone, and have received media coverage from around the world.
Dr Fakenstein
Synthetic media & VFX artist
Dr Fakenstein is the pseudonym of New Zealand A.I Artist Jeffery White. He is an early adopter of deepfake technology for synthetic face replacement and has used this tech to create comedic viral videos such as Full House of Mustaches and Mike Tyson as Oprah.
He is also a regular contributor to Jimmy Kimmel Live with various deepfake segments including Trump Toddler and deepfake Rudy Guiliani Christmas message.
White is a team member of DeepVoodoo FX, an A.I Studio founded by South Park's Trey Parker and Matt Stone where projects like Sassy Justice are created.
Just Joking? Deepfakes, satire and the politics of synthetic media
In this session, we delve into deepfakes’ growing use in satire and activism around the world, from mocking authoritarian leaders to synthetically resurrecting victims of injustice to demand action.
Based on findings from an upcoming report from Human Rights organisation WITNESS and the Co-creation Studio at MIT Open Documentary Lab, we’ll explore some of the key questions these often controversial uses of synthetic media raise: How can we distinguish intentional disinformation from clumsy deepfake critique? Who’s fair game to target without consent? When should synthetic satire be labelled and who should be responsible for deciding when it crosses the line?
Kat Cizek (Moderator)
Creative Director, Co-Creation Studio at MIT Open Documentary Lab
Katerina Cizek is a Peabody and two-time Emmy Award-winning documentarian working across emergent platforms. She is the artistic director and co-founder of the Co-Creation Studio at MIT Open Documentary Lab. At the studio she wrote (with Uricchio et al.) the world’s first field study on co-creating media called Collective Wisdom, which is forthcoming from MIT Press. For over a decade, Cizek worked as a documentary director at the National Film Board of Canada, transforming the organization into a world-leading digital hub, with the projects Highrise and Filmmaker-in-Residence. Both community-based and globally recognized, these two ground-breaking long-form digital projects garnered international awards and critical acclaim. Cizek is a member of the Directors’ Guild of Canada, has served as an advisor at CPH:DOX, ESoDoc and the Sundance Institute’s New Frontier Lab and Stories of Change Program. She is a founding member of the Guild of Future Architects, a member of the editorial collective at Immerse and a member of the Interactive Board of Jurors for the Peabody Awards.
Sam Gregory
Programme manager, WITNESS
Sam Gregory is the Program Director of WITNESS, which helps people use video and technology to defend human rights. Sam’s current work focuses on the threats and opportunities as emerging technologies such as AI intersect with disinformation, media manipulation, and rising authoritarianism. An expert on new forms of misinformation and disinformation as well as innovations in preserving trust and authenticity, he leads WITNESS’ global ‘Prepare, Don’t Panic’ work on emerging threats such as deepfakes, emerging solutions such as authenticity and provenance infrastructure, and on new opportunities such as live-streamed and co-present storytelling for action and smartphone witnessing for human rights.
Quoted in major media worldwide, he has spoken at Davos and the White House and publishes frequently on issues in technology and human rights. He is a former Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, and is on the Technology Advisory Board of the ICC. He previously taught from 2010 to 2018 on participatory media and human rights at the Harvard Kennedy School, and co-chaired the Partnership on AI’s Expert Group on AI and the Media.
Henry Ajder
Head of Policy & Partnerships, Metaphysic
Henry is Head of Policy & Partnerships at Metaphysic, where he helps shape the company’s approach to developing hyperreal synthetic media technologies ethically.
A world leading expert on deepfakes and synthetic media, Henry’s research has shaped global understanding of synthetic media and its societal impact. He works with governments, companies, law firms, media organisations, and NGOs to address the threats and opportunities these disruptive technologies present, from commercial and cybersecurity strategies to legislation and public policy.
An established media contributor, Henry regularly features in the BBC, The New York Times, Vox, The Guardian, Wired, and The Financial Times.
Previously, Henry was Head of Research Analysis at the world’s first deepfake detection company, Sensity and an Emerging Technologies Researcher at the London based innovation think tank, Nesta.
Mutale Nkonde
CEO & Founder, AI for the People (AFP)
Mutale Nkonde is the leader and founder of AI for the People, a communications firm whose mission is to use art and culture to empower general audiences to combat racial bias in technological design.
Prior to starting AI for the People, Nkonde worked in AI Governance. During that time, she was part of the team that introduced the Algorithmic Accountability Act, the DEEP FAKES Accountability Act, and the No Biometric Barriers to Housing Act, (reintroduced in 2021) to the US House of Representatives in 2019.
Nkonde started her career as a news producer at the BBC in London, is a much sought after commentator on race. In 2019 she published a report on Advancing Racial Literacy in Tech, and her work has been featured in Wired, Washington Post and New York Times. In 2021 Nkonde was part of a news report, on facial recognition and shareholder activism, that was nominated for a New York News Emmy.
Nkonde is currently a fellow at Stanford University's Digital Civil Society Lab, and formerly held fellowships at the Berkman Klein Center of Internet and Society and the Institute of Advanced Study at Notre Dame.
Next generation content creation: The future of entertainment and advertising
VFX and video editing tools have long been the source of the ‘movie magic’ in much of the digital content we consume on a daily basis. As synthetic media continues to become more powerful and accessible, innovative media organizations, creators, and agencies are using the technology to revolutionise the media industry, from branded personalised video messages from famous footballers to synthetic presenters reading your local weather forecast.
In this session, we look at how synthetic media is ushering in a new age of content creation, how the technology will change the future of entertainment and advertising, and how we can navigate some of the ethical challenges the technology presents.
Martin Adams (Moderator)
CEO & Co-founder, Codec
Martin brings more than a decade of experience to play as a speaker, founder, director, and investor in the areas of disruptive technology, innovation and marketing.
Martin is a Co-Founder of Codec.ai (recognised as a ’Top 20 Artificial Intelligence Scaleup' by the UK Government), the Social Media Unit @ UCL and the Digital Leadership Council. Martin is also on the Technology Advisory Board, focusing on internet based business models, for Providence Private Equity.
He has been recognised as one of the UK’s Top 100 Entrepreneurs in the Maserati Top 100 and a Top 50 UK Innovator by Penrose, described as a ‘Marketing Guru’ by the Sunday Times and he speaks internationally on innovation, artificial intelligence, media and marketing and the 'Future of Work.'
Codec.ai named ‘Best Artificial Intelligence Company in Marketing’ at the Cognition X Awards and one of the ‘Hottest Artificial Intelligence Startups in Europe’ by Tech Crunch.
Rob Farnell
Creative Director of User Experience, AI & Voice, BBC
Rob Farnell is Creative Director of User Experience at the BBC. Focusing on voice, ai and emerging experiences. In recent years his team has helped to create the World's first public service voice assistant and created experiences and content using various forms of synthetic media. In parallel he has conducted a piece of research investigating the use of synthetic media, exploring the threats and opportunities it brings for media organisations.
Victor Riparbelli
CEO & Co-founder, Synthesia
Victor Riparbelli is the CEO and co-founder of Synthesia, the world's leading AI video generation platform that makes video creation as easy as writing an email. Simply select your AI presenter, type in your script in one of 40 languages and click create. Your video is ready within minutes. Synthesia is powering a paradigm shift in how we think about media production – from something we record with cameras to something we program with computers. Our vision is to turn the world's text into video.
Prior to founding Synthesia, Victor has been involved in technology entrepreneurship for the last 10 years and has been involved in building products across many industries. His work in the VR/AR sector inspired him to apply similar technologies to video production and in 2017 he co-founded Synthesia with Prof. Matthias Niessner, Prof. Lourdes Agapito and Steffen Tjerrild.
Oliver Feldwick
Head of Innovation, The & Partnership
Oliver Feldwick is The&Partnership’s Head of Innovation. He joined The&Partnership in 2014 and has since worked on accounts including Toyota, Lexus, Mars, NatWest, NewsUK, Centrica, Samsung and Coty. Prior to that he’s worked at agencies like AKQA and BBH. His role looks at the evolving shape of agency models and how technology can help supercharge everything we do.
In 2016, he won the Admap prize with his essay ‘The Uncanny Valley of Personalisation’, and in 2018 he got a distinction in the IPA Excellence Diploma with his paper ‘Unleashing Cyborg Creativity’. In 2020, he won the Atticus Award for his piece on AI, Ethics and Marketing.
Beyond being a massive advertising nerd, he is also a boardgame nerd, keen chef and (mostly) retired runner.
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Making waves: The diverse applications of synthetic voice
For many people, synthetic voice is still synonymous with virtual assistants such as Amazon’s Alexa or basic text to speech applications. However, realistic voice synthesis technology has evolved rapidly in recent years and is poised to revolutionise how we speak and listen, from live translation in video calls and personalised voice personas to voice skins for online gaming and voice to voice translation in Hollywood entertainment.
In this session, we’ll look at the fascinating ways voice synthesis will change the way we communicate and express ourselves, and how pioneers of this technology view the future of voice as an essential part of our identity.
Rupal Patel (Moderator)
CEO & Founder, VocalID
Rupal is the CEO and Founder of VocaliD, a voice technology company that provides AI-generated voices with personality. VocaliD’s award-winning technology leverages the latest advances in machine learning, signal processing and voice analytics along with the company’s crowdsourced Voicebank to create inclusive, diverse and brand aligned voices for organizations and individuals with special needs. Rupal is also the co-founder of AITHOS, a consortium of synthetic media companies committed to ethical and responsible use of technology. Rupal began her career as a speech clinician where she became fascinated with the potential of using speech technologies for assistive communication which then led to a doctorate in speech science. She is currently on leave from Northeastern University where she is a tenured professor in the Khoury College of Computer Sciences and Bouve College of Health Sciences. Named one of The Top 11 Visionaries in Voice 2019 by Voicebot.ai and Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People in Business, Rupal has been featured on TED, NPR, and in major international news and technology publications.
Alex Serdiuk
CEO and Co-founder, Respeecher
Alex founded Respeecher with Dmytro Bielievtsov and Grant Reaber in 2018. Since then the team has been focused on high-fidelity voice cloning. Their technology was the first synthetic speech adopted by big Hollywood productions, starting from 2019. Alex is in charge of Business Development and Strategy. Their primary focus is improving the voice cloning technology in several directions, including the tech democratization to let sound professionals and creators all over the world have the fine tool in their acquaintance. Respeecher works in Feature films and TV projects, Video Games, Animation studios, Localization, media agencies, and others.
Aaron Jones
CEO and Co-founder, Yepic
Aaron Jones is an award-winning entrepreneur working in Artificial Intelligence. Aaron co-founded Yepic AI, whose flagship product vidvoice.ai is a state of the art video translation technology that dubs your lips in real-time. Vid Voice is being used in business meetings, telehealth, live events and film dubbing. It's the first and only service of its kind.
Aaron was recognized in the Queen's Birthday Honors list, making him the youngest person to receive a British Empire Medal for services to Industry. He was also awarded Alumni of the Year 2018 by Essex University and shortlisted for Forbes 30 under 30.
Mike Pappas
CEO and Co-founder, Modulate
Mike Pappas is the CEO/Co-founder of Modulate, which uses machine learning to make online voice chat more immersive and inclusive. Mike’s work at Modulate ranges from developing new partnerships within the industry, monitoring trends and new opportunities for Modulate’s unique technology to have a positive impact, and reinforcing an internal and external culture of passion, respect, and personal growth.
Mike graduated from MIT with a BS in Physics and Applied Mathematics in 2014. Before Modulate, Mike spent time at Bridgewater Associates working on cloud technology until joining Lola Travel as an early employee to learn more about building a startup from an experienced entrepreneur (CEO Paul English, who co-founded Kayak.com.) Outside of work, his passions include philosophizing about group cultures and dynamics, video games, and creating experimental cocktails.
Meme machines: The rise of synthetic media apps
Over the last 18 months, a growing number of smartphone and web apps have made generating synthetic media accessible to everyday people around the world. Attracting hundreds of millions of users, these apps have made personalised and highly memeable synthetic content the talk of social media.
In this session, we’ll discuss the extraordinary rise of synthetic media apps, where the space is moving next, and how developers can design their apps and communities to prevent misuse.
Anna Bulakh (Moderator)
Policy Advisor, Reface
Anna Bulakh is Policy Adviser at Reface, an AI powered app for face-swapping with more than 140 million installs.
Anna has 10 years of experience in security and defence policies. Anna was a Research Fellow at the International Centre for Defence and Security (ICDS) in Tallinn and a Research Assistant at the Prague Security Studies Institute (PSSI). Since 2019, she has also been part of the IT community developing solutions to help combat online disinformation.
Anna is a Co-Founder of Cappture.cc, a start-up funded by the Startup Wise Guys accelerator program, and former Program Director at Disinfo.Tech. In her work, she deals with issues such as tech regulation and diplomacy, tech impact on societal security, information and cyber security, broader national security policies and resilience. Currently, she is engaging with experts and the regulatory community to develop a common approach to the future of AI and synthetic media.
Ben Zion Benkhin
CEO and Co-founder, Wombo
Ben is the founder and CEO of WOMBO, one of the most viral apps in history with over 65m downloads in its first 6 months of existence. In a previous life, he ran and operated a digital design agency, and was the President of the University of Toronto AI club. He’s a massive AI geek, and is excited about finding new ways to use the technology to entertain and excite people all over the world.
Dima Shvets
CEO and Co-founder, Reface
Dima is a VC professional interested in internet technologies, startups, venture capital, and innovations. For five years, he was a Managing Partner of a seed-stage venture capital fund Imperious Group.
Dima is co-founder (since 2019) and CEO (since 2021) at Reface, an AI-powered app to swap faces in the videos, GIFs, and photos in a few seconds, that raised $5,5M by a16z. His focus is to spread a vision of the future of digital content to the world, develop long-term relations with businesses, customers, partners, and investors, implementing innovative tech AI-powered solutions for different industries.
Zach Wener
CEO and Co-founder, Uberduck
Zach Wener is the founder of Uberduck, a synthetic speech company that runs the popular web text to speech app of the same name. Before founding Uberduck, Zach studied at MIT and Stanford and spent years building software for the web in California.
Mike graduated from MIT with a BS in Physics and Applied Mathematics in 2014. Before Modulate, Mike spent time at Bridgewater Associates working on cloud technology until joining Lola Travel as an early employee to learn more about building a startup from an experienced entrepreneur (CEO Paul English, who co-founded Kayak.com.) Outside of work, his passions include philosophizing about group cultures and dynamics, video games, and creating experimental cocktails.
How to copyright: Synthetic media, creativity, and the law
New and innovative technologies often get legal practitioners and researchers talking, and synthetic media is no exception. While many uses of synthetic media are covered by existing legal provisions, others, such as synthetic resurrection and the unauthorized commercial use of someone’s likeness, raise interesting questions relating to image rights, privacy, and intellectual property.
In this session, we’ll look at how creative synthetic media fits into current legal frameworks and where these frameworks may need to adapt in the face of new and emerging uses of the technology.
Tom Graham (Moderator)
CEO & Co-founder, Metaphysic
Tom is the CEO and co-founder of Metaphysic. He is obsessed with old digital cameras, NFTs and all things metaverse. He also founded Omnisci, a GPU in-memory database and analytics company based in SF. Previously, he was a US capital markets attorney in Hong Kong and is originally from Australia.
Kelsey Farish
Media & Technology Lawyer, DAC Beachcroft
Kelsey is a media and technology lawyer at DAC Beachcroft in London, where she supports clients ranging from start-ups to large multinational corporations on their media, technology, and internet law matters. She is one of Europe's leadinglegal experts on deepfakes and manipulated digital content: her scholarship includes advisory work for the European Parliament, and publications in the Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice and for the European Audiovisual Observatory.
Nikki Pope
Sr. Director, AI & Legal Ethics, NVIDIA
Nikki is the head of AI & Legal Ethics at NVIDIA where her current focus is on integrating trustworthy AI principles into the company’s processes. By background she is a lawyer and advocates for criminal justice reform through her nonprofit, The Pruno Fund.
Agnes Venema
Marie Curie Researcher, University of Malta & "Mihai Viteazul" National Intelligence Academy
Marie Curie Researcher, University of Malta & "Mihai Viteazul" National Intelligence Academy Agnes E. Venema is a Marie Curie Researcher on the European Joint Doctorate grant “Evolving Security SciencE through Networked Technologies, Information policy And Law” (ESSENTIAL), pursuing a dual doctorate at the “Mihai Viteazul” National Intelligence Academy in Bucharest, Romania and the University of Malta. Her research area is Intelligence and National Security, specializing in Image Intelligence.Agnes has published on deepfakes in the American Bar Association’s SciTech Lawyer and has provided expert commentary for the media, including for Business Insider, The Times and Politico Europe. She has also used her expertise on deepfakes to inform legal consultations of the New Zealand Parliament Justice Committee, the Law Commission of England and Wales, and the European Parliament.Prior to starting her doctorate, Agnes worked on various issues related to international security and law, including at the University of Essex and for various NGOs. She also worked for on Security Sector Reform at the United Nations Mission in Timor-Leste (UNMIT) and was part of an Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) election monitoring mission.Agnes also holds an LL.M. degree in Human Rights and Criminal Justice from the Irish Centre for Human Rights at NUI Galway and a Bachelor degree from University College Utrecht.
Synthetic foundations: Building the Metaverse
Whether it’s avatars, NFTs, virtual influencers, or digital fashion, synthetic media is behind many of the building blocks of the Metaverse. But how exactly do these blocks fit together and who's helping them take shape?
Against a backdrop of skyrocketing interest in recent months, we’ll explore how the metaverse is making virtual worlds as meaningful as physical ones, and how its many diverse components can be realised responsibly.
Tom Graham (Moderator)
CEO & Co-founder, Metaphysic
Tom is the CEO and co-founder of Metaphysic. He is obsessed with old digital cameras, NFTs and all things metaverse. He also founded Omnisci, a GPU in-memory database and analytics company based in SF. Previously, he was a US capital markets attorney in Hong Kong and is originally from Australia.
Arif Khan
CEO & Co-founder, Alethea AI
Arif Khan is the CEO and co-founder of Alethea AI, a decentralized protocol to create intelligent and interactive NFTs powered by Open AI’s GPT-3 engine. Alethea AI is creating a new NFT standard, termed the Intelligent NFT (iNFT) by embedding AI animation, interaction, and voice synthesis capabilities into NFTs. As creators of the First ever iNFT, Alethea partnered with the leading auction house Sotheby’s to create and auction the first interactive and intelligent NFT, Alice. Alethea’s protocol is backed by leading institutions like Metapurse, Bitkraft, Dapper Labs, Galaxy Interactive, Gemini, Mark Cuban, Crypto.com and Multicoin, IDEO and others.
Arif has been regularly invited to speak at major global events like The World Economic Forum, World Web Forum, and has guest lectured at the Singapore Management University’s MBA program. He is a top writer for Artificial Intelligence on Medium.com and his work has been covered or featured in CBS, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal & The New York Times.
Andrew Durgee
Managing Director, Republic
Andrew entered crypto in early 2010, pioneering early blockchain technology plays including an industry first multi signature wallet repository. Andrew studied Management Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and is a highly skilled executive with over 12 years of experience. Andrew was previously a Partner at a leading blockchain advisory group, TLDR.
Deepfake it till you make it: The viral art of faceswapping
In just under four years, viral face swapping has moved from crudely inserting Nicholas Cage’s face in pop culture movies to breathtaking hyperreal videos that have captivated hundreds of millions viewers.
In this session, we reflect on the evolution of face swapping with the creators who turned it into an artform, tracing their beginnings as hobbyists experimenting with new open source tools to becoming some of the world’s most in demand AI artists.
Henry Ajder (Moderator)
Head of Policy & Partnerships, Metaphysic
Henry is Head of Policy & Partnerships at Metaphysic, where he helps shape the company’s approach to developing hyperreal synthetic media technologies ethically.
A world leading expert on deepfakes and synthetic media, Henry’s research has shaped global understanding of synthetic media and its societal impact. He works with governments, companies, law firms, media organisations, and NGOs to address the threats and opportunities these disruptive technologies present, from commercial and cybersecurity strategies to legislation and public policy.
An established media contributor, Henry regularly features in the BBC, The New York Times, Vox, The Guardian, Wired, and The Financial Times.
Previously, Henry was Head of Research Analysis at the world’s first deepfake detection company, Sensity and an Emerging Technologies Researcher at the London based innovation think tank, Nesta.
Chris Ume
Co-founder, Metaphysic
Chris Ume is co-founder of Metaphysic, and is widely recognized as the world expert in the emerging field of hyper-real videos. Since 2018, Ume’s work has blended a mastery of VFX techniques with evolving AI models. Prior to launching Metaphysic, Ume was a lead creator on South Park’s Sassy Justice series. His commercial productions also include a Gillette throwback ad, Belgian football national ad and more. He first gained notoriety with his DeepTomCruise viral videos, which have been seen over 70M times on TikTok.
Shamook
Synthetic media & VFX artist
Shamook is an AI artist and VFX professional best known for his leading work on deepfakes.
Using the latest and best technology, he creates new alternate realities where you can see your favourite actors in roles they never actually starred in, such as Tom Holland in 2004’s Spiderman or Will Smith as Neo in the Matrix. His videos have attracted over 28m views on YouTube alone, and have received media coverage from around the world.
Dr Fakenstein
Synthetic media & VFX artist
Dr Fakenstein is the pseudonym of New Zealand A.I Artist Jeffery White. He is an early adopter of deepfake technology for synthetic face replacement and has used this tech to create comedic viral videos such as Full House of Mustaches and Mike Tyson as Oprah.
He is also a regular contributor to Jimmy Kimmel Live with various deepfake segments including Trump Toddler and deepfake Rudy Guiliani Christmas message.
White is a team member of DeepVoodoo FX, an A.I Studio founded by South Park's Trey Parker and Matt Stone where projects like Sassy Justice are created.
Just Joking? Deepfakes, satire and the politics of synthetic media
In this session, we delve into deepfakes’ growing use in satire and activism around the world, from mocking authoritarian leaders to synthetically resurrecting victims of injustice to demand action.
Based on findings from an upcoming report from Human Rights organisation WITNESS and the Co-creation Studio at MIT Open Documentary Lab, we’ll explore some of the key questions these often controversial uses of synthetic media raise: How can we distinguish intentional disinformation from clumsy deepfake critique? Who’s fair game to target without consent? When should synthetic satire be labelled and who should be responsible for deciding when it crosses the line?
Kat Cizek (Moderator)
Creative Director, Co-Creation Studio at MIT Open Documentary Lab
Katerina Cizek is a Peabody and two-time Emmy Award-winning documentarian working across emergent platforms. She is the artistic director and co-founder of the Co-Creation Studio at MIT Open Documentary Lab. At the studio she wrote (with Uricchio et al.) the world’s first field study on co-creating media called Collective Wisdom, which is forthcoming from MIT Press. For over a decade, Cizek worked as a documentary director at the National Film Board of Canada, transforming the organization into a world-leading digital hub, with the projects Highrise and Filmmaker-in-Residence. Both community-based and globally recognized, these two ground-breaking long-form digital projects garnered international awards and critical acclaim. Cizek is a member of the Directors’ Guild of Canada, has served as an advisor at CPH:DOX, ESoDoc and the Sundance Institute’s New Frontier Lab and Stories of Change Program. She is a founding member of the Guild of Future Architects, a member of the editorial collective at Immerse and a member of the Interactive Board of Jurors for the Peabody Awards.
Sam Gregory
Programme manager, WITNESS
Sam Gregory is the Program Director of WITNESS, which helps people use video and technology to defend human rights. Sam’s current work focuses on the threats and opportunities as emerging technologies such as AI intersect with disinformation, media manipulation, and rising authoritarianism. An expert on new forms of misinformation and disinformation as well as innovations in preserving trust and authenticity, he leads WITNESS’ global ‘Prepare, Don’t Panic’ work on emerging threats such as deepfakes, emerging solutions such as authenticity and provenance infrastructure, and on new opportunities such as live-streamed and co-present storytelling for action and smartphone witnessing for human rights.
Quoted in major media worldwide, he has spoken at Davos and the White House and publishes frequently on issues in technology and human rights. He is a former Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, and is on the Technology Advisory Board of the ICC. He previously taught from 2010 to 2018 on participatory media and human rights at the Harvard Kennedy School, and co-chaired the Partnership on AI’s Expert Group on AI and the Media.
Henry Ajder
Head of Policy & Partnerships, Metaphysic
Henry is Head of Policy & Partnerships at Metaphysic, where he helps shape the company’s approach to developing hyperreal synthetic media technologies ethically.
A world leading expert on deepfakes and synthetic media, Henry’s research has shaped global understanding of synthetic media and its societal impact. He works with governments, companies, law firms, media organisations, and NGOs to address the threats and opportunities these disruptive technologies present, from commercial and cybersecurity strategies to legislation and public policy.
An established media contributor, Henry regularly features in the BBC, The New York Times, Vox, The Guardian, Wired, and The Financial Times.
Previously, Henry was Head of Research Analysis at the world’s first deepfake detection company, Sensity and an Emerging Technologies Researcher at the London based innovation think tank, Nesta.
Mutale Nkonde
CEO & Founder, AI for the People (AFP)
Mutale Nkonde is the leader and founder of AI for the People, a communications firm whose mission is to use art and culture to empower general audiences to combat racial bias in technological design.
Prior to starting AI for the People, Nkonde worked in AI Governance. During that time, she was part of the team that introduced the Algorithmic Accountability Act, the DEEP FAKES Accountability Act, and the No Biometric Barriers to Housing Act, (reintroduced in 2021) to the US House of Representatives in 2019.
Nkonde started her career as a news producer at the BBC in London, is a much sought after commentator on race. In 2019 she published a report on Advancing Racial Literacy in Tech, and her work has been featured in Wired, Washington Post and New York Times. In 2021 Nkonde was part of a news report, on facial recognition and shareholder activism, that was nominated for a New York News Emmy.
Nkonde is currently a fellow at Stanford University's Digital Civil Society Lab, and formerly held fellowships at the Berkman Klein Center of Internet and Society and the Institute of Advanced Study at Notre Dame.
Next generation content creation: The future of entertainment and advertising
VFX and video editing tools have long been the source of the ‘movie magic’ in much of the digital content we consume on a daily basis. As synthetic media continues to become more powerful and accessible, innovative media organizations, creators, and agencies are using the technology to revolutionise the media industry, from branded personalised video messages from famous footballers to synthetic presenters reading your local weather forecast.
In this session, we look at how synthetic media is ushering in a new age of content creation, how the technology will change the future of entertainment and advertising, and how we can navigate some of the ethical challenges the technology presents.
Martin Adams (Moderator)
CEO & Co-founder, Codec
Martin brings more than a decade of experience to play as a speaker, founder, director, and investor in the areas of disruptive technology, innovation and marketing.
Martin is a Co-Founder of Codec.ai (recognised as a ’Top 20 Artificial Intelligence Scaleup' by the UK Government), the Social Media Unit @ UCL and the Digital Leadership Council. Martin is also on the Technology Advisory Board, focusing on internet based business models, for Providence Private Equity.
He has been recognised as one of the UK’s Top 100 Entrepreneurs in the Maserati Top 100 and a Top 50 UK Innovator by Penrose, described as a ‘Marketing Guru’ by the Sunday Times and he speaks internationally on innovation, artificial intelligence, media and marketing and the 'Future of Work.'
Codec.ai named ‘Best Artificial Intelligence Company in Marketing’ at the Cognition X Awards and one of the ‘Hottest Artificial Intelligence Startups in Europe’ by Tech Crunch.
Rob Farnell
Creative Director of User Experience, AI & Voice, BBC
Rob Farnell is Creative Director of User Experience at the BBC. Focusing on voice, ai and emerging experiences. In recent years his team has helped to create the World's first public service voice assistant and created experiences and content using various forms of synthetic media. In parallel he has conducted a piece of research investigating the use of synthetic media, exploring the threats and opportunities it brings for media organisations.
Victor Riparbelli
CEO & Co-founder, Synthesia
Victor Riparbelli is the CEO and co-founder of Synthesia, the world's leading AI video generation platform that makes video creation as easy as writing an email. Simply select your AI presenter, type in your script in one of 40 languages and click create. Your video is ready within minutes. Synthesia is powering a paradigm shift in how we think about media production – from something we record with cameras to something we program with computers. Our vision is to turn the world's text into video.
Prior to founding Synthesia, Victor has been involved in technology entrepreneurship for the last 10 years and has been involved in building products across many industries. His work in the VR/AR sector inspired him to apply similar technologies to video production and in 2017 he co-founded Synthesia with Prof. Matthias Niessner, Prof. Lourdes Agapito and Steffen Tjerrild.
Oliver Feldwick
Head of Innovation, The & Partnership
Oliver Feldwick is The&Partnership’s Head of Innovation. He joined The&Partnership in 2014 and has since worked on accounts including Toyota, Lexus, Mars, NatWest, NewsUK, Centrica, Samsung and Coty. Prior to that he’s worked at agencies like AKQA and BBH. His role looks at the evolving shape of agency models and how technology can help supercharge everything we do.
In 2016, he won the Admap prize with his essay ‘The Uncanny Valley of Personalisation’, and in 2018 he got a distinction in the IPA Excellence Diploma with his paper ‘Unleashing Cyborg Creativity’. In 2020, he won the Atticus Award for his piece on AI, Ethics and Marketing.
Beyond being a massive advertising nerd, he is also a boardgame nerd, keen chef and (mostly) retired runner.
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Making waves: The diverse applications of synthetic voice
For many people, synthetic voice is still synonymous with virtual assistants such as Amazon’s Alexa or basic text to speech applications. However, realistic voice synthesis technology has evolved rapidly in recent years and is poised to revolutionise how we speak and listen, from live translation in video calls and personalised voice personas to voice skins for online gaming and voice to voice translation in Hollywood entertainment.
In this session, we’ll look at the fascinating ways voice synthesis will change the way we communicate and express ourselves, and how pioneers of this technology view the future of voice as an essential part of our identity.
Rupal Patel (Moderator)
CEO & Founder, VocalID
Rupal is the CEO and Founder of VocaliD, a voice technology company that provides AI-generated voices with personality. VocaliD’s award-winning technology leverages the latest advances in machine learning, signal processing and voice analytics along with the company’s crowdsourced Voicebank to create inclusive, diverse and brand aligned voices for organizations and individuals with special needs. Rupal is also the co-founder of AITHOS, a consortium of synthetic media companies committed to ethical and responsible use of technology. Rupal began her career as a speech clinician where she became fascinated with the potential of using speech technologies for assistive communication which then led to a doctorate in speech science. She is currently on leave from Northeastern University where she is a tenured professor in the Khoury College of Computer Sciences and Bouve College of Health Sciences. Named one of The Top 11 Visionaries in Voice 2019 by Voicebot.ai and Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People in Business, Rupal has been featured on TED, NPR, and in major international news and technology publications.
Alex Serdiuk
CEO and Co-founder, Respeecher
Alex founded Respeecher with Dmytro Bielievtsov and Grant Reaber in 2018. Since then the team has been focused on high-fidelity voice cloning. Their technology was the first synthetic speech adopted by big Hollywood productions, starting from 2019. Alex is in charge of Business Development and Strategy. Their primary focus is improving the voice cloning technology in several directions, including the tech democratization to let sound professionals and creators all over the world have the fine tool in their acquaintance. Respeecher works in Feature films and TV projects, Video Games, Animation studios, Localization, media agencies, and others.
Aaron Jones
CEO and Co-founder, Yepic
Aaron Jones is an award-winning entrepreneur working in Artificial Intelligence. Aaron co-founded Yepic AI, whose flagship product vidvoice.ai is a state of the art video translation technology that dubs your lips in real-time. Vid Voice is being used in business meetings, telehealth, live events and film dubbing. It's the first and only service of its kind.
Aaron was recognized in the Queen's Birthday Honors list, making him the youngest person to receive a British Empire Medal for services to Industry. He was also awarded Alumni of the Year 2018 by Essex University and shortlisted for Forbes 30 under 30.
Mike Pappas
CEO and Co-founder, Modulate
Mike Pappas is the CEO/Co-founder of Modulate, which uses machine learning to make online voice chat more immersive and inclusive. Mike’s work at Modulate ranges from developing new partnerships within the industry, monitoring trends and new opportunities for Modulate’s unique technology to have a positive impact, and reinforcing an internal and external culture of passion, respect, and personal growth.
Mike graduated from MIT with a BS in Physics and Applied Mathematics in 2014. Before Modulate, Mike spent time at Bridgewater Associates working on cloud technology until joining Lola Travel as an early employee to learn more about building a startup from an experienced entrepreneur (CEO Paul English, who co-founded Kayak.com.) Outside of work, his passions include philosophizing about group cultures and dynamics, video games, and creating experimental cocktails.
Meme machines: The rise of synthetic media apps
Over the last 18 months, a growing number of smartphone and web apps have made generating synthetic media accessible to everyday people around the world. Attracting hundreds of millions of users, these apps have made personalised and highly memeable synthetic content the talk of social media.
In this session, we’ll discuss the extraordinary rise of synthetic media apps, where the space is moving next, and how developers can design their apps and communities to prevent misuse.
Anna Bulakh (Moderator)
Policy Advisor, Reface
Anna Bulakh is Policy Adviser at Reface, an AI powered app for face-swapping with more than 140 million installs.
Anna has 10 years of experience in security and defence policies. Anna was a Research Fellow at the International Centre for Defence and Security (ICDS) in Tallinn and a Research Assistant at the Prague Security Studies Institute (PSSI). Since 2019, she has also been part of the IT community developing solutions to help combat online disinformation.
Anna is a Co-Founder of Cappture.cc, a start-up funded by the Startup Wise Guys accelerator program, and former Program Director at Disinfo.Tech. In her work, she deals with issues such as tech regulation and diplomacy, tech impact on societal security, information and cyber security, broader national security policies and resilience. Currently, she is engaging with experts and the regulatory community to develop a common approach to the future of AI and synthetic media.
Ben Zion Benkhin
CEO and Co-founder, Wombo
Ben is the founder and CEO of WOMBO, one of the most viral apps in history with over 65m downloads in its first 6 months of existence. In a previous life, he ran and operated a digital design agency, and was the President of the University of Toronto AI club. He’s a massive AI geek, and is excited about finding new ways to use the technology to entertain and excite people all over the world.
Dima Shvets
CEO and Co-founder, Reface
Dima is a VC professional interested in internet technologies, startups, venture capital, and innovations. For five years, he was a Managing Partner of a seed-stage venture capital fund Imperious Group.
Dima is co-founder (since 2019) and CEO (since 2021) at Reface, an AI-powered app to swap faces in the videos, GIFs, and photos in a few seconds, that raised $5,5M by a16z. His focus is to spread a vision of the future of digital content to the world, develop long-term relations with businesses, customers, partners, and investors, implementing innovative tech AI-powered solutions for different industries.
Zach Wener
CEO and Co-founder, Uberduck
Zach Wener is the founder of Uberduck, a synthetic speech company that runs the popular web text to speech app of the same name. Before founding Uberduck, Zach studied at MIT and Stanford and spent years building software for the web in California.
Mike graduated from MIT with a BS in Physics and Applied Mathematics in 2014. Before Modulate, Mike spent time at Bridgewater Associates working on cloud technology until joining Lola Travel as an early employee to learn more about building a startup from an experienced entrepreneur (CEO Paul English, who co-founded Kayak.com.) Outside of work, his passions include philosophizing about group cultures and dynamics, video games, and creating experimental cocktails.
How to copyright: Synthetic media, creativity, and the law
New and innovative technologies often get legal practitioners and researchers talking, and synthetic media is no exception. While many uses of synthetic media are covered by existing legal provisions, others, such as synthetic resurrection and the unauthorized commercial use of someone’s likeness, raise interesting questions relating to image rights, privacy, and intellectual property.
In this session, we’ll look at how creative synthetic media fits into current legal frameworks and where these frameworks may need to adapt in the face of new and emerging uses of the technology.
Tom Graham (Moderator)
CEO & Co-founder, Metaphysic
Tom is the CEO and co-founder of Metaphysic. He is obsessed with old digital cameras, NFTs and all things metaverse. He also founded Omnisci, a GPU in-memory database and analytics company based in SF. Previously, he was a US capital markets attorney in Hong Kong and is originally from Australia.
Kelsey Farish
Media & Technology Lawyer, DAC Beachcroft
Kelsey is a media and technology lawyer at DAC Beachcroft in London, where she supports clients ranging from start-ups to large multinational corporations on their media, technology, and internet law matters. She is one of Europe's leadinglegal experts on deepfakes and manipulated digital content: her scholarship includes advisory work for the European Parliament, and publications in the Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice and for the European Audiovisual Observatory.