Deepfake technology and sports, a hazardous affair.

The market for deepfake detection was reported at $3.86 billion in 2022 and continues to expand. Deepfakes are a menace to society, they use AI to forge incredibly realistic videos and impersonate celebrities, political entities and athletes. They can replace the person in an original video with a digital footprint version of that same person in order to get them to say whatever they like. In spite of its impact on a wider societal scale, the technology can also harness the possibility to revolutionise the way that sports content is consumed.

I briefly explore the ways in which this can be marketed and the potential dangers associated with deepfake technology.

In what ways can deepfakes make its way into football and the wider sports industry?

• Through advertising campaigns – FanDuel used a deepfake version of Charles Barkley in his younger prime athlete playing days to encourage FanDuel customers to “think like a player” when placing their bets.
• Marketing campaigns - Lay’s created a digital version of Lionel Messi and created a Messi messages app. The app used facial mapping and lip syncing to make it appear as if Messi was responding with custom messages. This is a clear example of synthetic media and the dangers of replicating famous celebrities who can be engineered to say whatever is on the prompt it is given.
• Deepfake startups are attracting significant venture capital funding, and this will inevitably end up infiltrating sport due to the nature of these startups and what they can do- venture capital funds invested $187.7 million into the industry last year, with the biggest recipient being Runway that is now valued at $1.5 billion. Deepdub, who use AI to make it appear as if actors are speaking different languages, raised 20 million dollars last year. The opportunities for athletes are clear to see; their digital avatars can produce content across the world to broaden their revenue streams, without ever having to leave the house.

Now, this can present quite a few legal questions that would need to be explored further, as IP law would need to evolve in order to adapt to the advanced nature of deepfakes:

• What would happen if an athlete’s image is used without their consent?
• What are the parameters of image rights?
• What if a brand uses the digital version of you to endorse a product that may contravene your image, or orders the digital version to be racist, or sexist?
• Who owns the IP? Would it be treated as property, and if so, who would be the owner?

These questions persist because existing laws don’t have sufficient parameters to deal with these questions. We have seen the likes of David Beckham and now Lionel Messi providing deepfake versions of themselves, but they clearly have not signed away their full image rights. But what were to happen if they did??

Deepfakes can be used to maliciously harm athletes’ reputations and spread disinformation and can be incredibly difficult to distinguish between what is real or fake. It could potentially create a fake sports event or even manipulate the outcome of real events. Yes, whilst there are positives in that they can generate several revenue streams for both the developers of the technology and the athletes, the harms continue to be terrifying. Legal advisers may point to the opportunities: you could create virtual meet and greets with the deepfake athlete, historic football games could be recreated but with modern athletes (imagine how many would pay to watch this), and past events could be brought to life. There is much money to be made through deepfake technology, however the potential for disinformation should render these opportunities redundant and insufficient. The dangers are palpable and must be cautioned against.