Introducing the pervert’s dilemma: a contribution to the critique of Deepfake Pornography

Abstract

Recent technological innovation has made video doctoring increasingly accessible. This has given rise to Deepfake Pornography, an emerging phenomenon in which Deep Learning algorithms are used to superimpose a person's face onto a pornographic video. Although to most people, Deepfake Pornography is intuitively unethical, it seems difficult to justify this intuition without simultaneously condemning other actions that we do not ordinarily find morally objectionable, such as sexual fantasies. In the present article, I refer to this contradiction as the pervert's dilemma. I propose that the method of Levels of Abstraction, a philosophical mode of enquiry inspired by Formal Methods in computer science, can be employed to formulate at least one possible solution to the dilemma. From this perspective, the permissibility of some actions appears to depend on the degree to which they are abstracted from their natural context. I conclude that the dilemma can only be solved when considered at low levels of abstractions, when Deepfakes are situated in the macro-context of gender inequality.

The Grave Resolution to the Gamer’s Dilemma: an Argument for a Moral Distinction Between Virtual Murder and Virtual Child Molestation

“…A key point to note about the graveness of a wrongdoing is, that it is sensitive to both extrinsic and intrinsic factors. This point is related to one made by Öhman ( 2020 ), who stated that “the permissibility of some actions appears to depend on the degree to which they are abstracted from their natural context” (p.133). So, two wrongdoings that might seem equally grave in abstraction (their intrinsic graveness), might not seem equally grave once we also consider other factors (their extrinsic graveness) - such as: the social context of the wrongdoing; how long ago the wrongdoing occurred; how distanced from reality a fictional wrongdoing may be; and who committed the wrongdoing (and there is bound to be further such factors.)…”

“…And there will be further factors than these. The point here is to suggest that the graveness of a wrongdoing can be affected by such factors; factors that we may not notice when wrongdoings are “abstracted from their natural context”(Öhman, 2020 , p.133). And once a wrongdoing is sufficiently grave it may become off-limits.…”

“… 5 This formulation was originally given by Luck ( 2017 , 2018 , p.157), and has also been followed by Tilson ( 2018 , p.208), Bartel ( 2020 , p.122), Nader ( 2020 , p.239), and Öhman ( 2020 , p.139). …”

The Distinct Wrong of Deepfakes

“…Over the past years, several articles have appeared that touch on the ethical implications of this technology (Caporusso, 2021;Diakopoulos & Johnson, 2020;Fletcher, 2018;Franks & Waldman, 2019;Meskys et al, 2020;Öhman, 2020;Silbey and Hartzog, 2019;Spivak, 2019;Westerlund, 2019). Concerns have been raised about the potential use of deepfakes for blackmail, intimidation, and sabotage , ideological manipulation (Fletcher, 2018: 467), and incitement to violence .…”

Transdisciplinary AI Observatory—Retrospective Analyses and Future-Oriented Contradistinctions

“…Recently, the malicious design of deepfakes has been described as a "[...] serious threat to psychological security" [179]. Adult targets may despite the synthetic nature of the deepfake samples and often eventually their private character restricted to a personal possession of the agent in question, perceive their mere existence as degradation [180]-a phenomenon certainly requiring social discourses in the long-term.…”