NEW REPORT: Audiovisual Generative AI and Conflict Resolution

Last week, WITNESS’ Technology, Threats, and Opportunities (TTO) team launched a report on the impact of generative AI in armed conflict and widespread violence, focusing on the challenges that synthetic media may bring to conflict resolution and peace processes.

Our report analyzes the impact of synthetic media on the information landscape, offering an evidence-based perspective beyond the hype surrounding deepfakes. It also looks at future trends in technology, conflict, and security, explaining core AI techniques and analyzing real-world cases, to understand emerging threats in the information landscape as well as conflict dynamics.

The research underscores the need for international collaboration to develop standards and safeguards that can mitigate the disruptive potential of synthetic media in conflict settings. 

This forward-looking report investigates the evolving relationship between synthetic media and the information landscape in situations of armed conflict and widespread violence, with a particular focus on implications for conflict resolution and peace processes. Our analysis anticipates that advancements in audiovisual generative AI over the next 2 to 3 years could have notable implications for global security and stability. Yet, the intersection of generative AI and conflict dynamics remains underexplored, highlighting an urgent need for comprehensive exploration and understanding that prioritizes evidence-based analysis and does not succumb to hyperbolic rhetoric.

You can read the full report, outlining actionable steps for governments, the UN, other international bodies, and NGOs to tackle these challenges, here: wit.to/genai_conflictresolution

To learn more about WITNESS’s work on fortifying the truth in the age of generative AI, visit: gen-ai.witness.org