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Ady Barkan and deep fake of his words

for

From: chagnon@pubcom.com
Date: Sep 2, 2020 12:11PM

I have no intention of getting into a political debate on this forum, but I
have to bring up a disgraceful insult that a political cadre made toward
someone with ALS.

Ady Barkan is a prominent lawyer with ALS who uses a speech synthesizer. The
audio transcript of an interview he conducted was altered so that it appears
he said things that he claims he never did say.

You can read his editorial in Today's Washington Post online at
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/09/02/ady-barkan-op-ed-scalise-
video

What I'm concerned about is how easy it was to take the audio file of his
synthesized words, locate the same synthesizer, and change what he said.

Ok, I'm not naive. Political hacks and forgeries have been the mainstay of
campaigns for longer than I've been in Washington DC. But at least with a
photo or video clip, there are telltale forensic signs when something has
been altered.

But what has me concerned are:

1. Incredible life-saving technology, designed for someone with a
disability, was used against him.
2. The public couldn't tell that the version aired on TV was faked and
altered. It's literally Ady's word today, against his altered words in the
digital audio clip.

Maybe there's an ADA lawsuit in there somewhere? About how an assistive
technology was used to malign someone with a disability?

Such a sad reflection on our society.

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