Johnson/corbyn deepfakes
During the 2019 UK General Election, I led a high-profile project to produce deepfake campaign videos of Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn endorsing each other to be Prime Minister. These videos also warned society of the dangers of AI-generated disinformation and unregulated social media platforms. The project went viral, received global media attention, and reached millions of people across the world. A behind-the-scenes film about the project can be viewed on the BBC website here.
Science in the age of AI
As Head of Policy (Data and Digital Technologies) at the Royal Society, I led a major policy programme exploring the impact of artificial intelligence on the nature and method of scientific research. This brought together insights from more than a hundred leading scientists across the world from fields as diverse as astrophysics to paleontology. The report of the project is available to read here. Recordings from the 2024 Google DeepMind and Royal Society AI for Science Forum can be viewed here.
UNMASKing facial recognition
At WebRoots Democracy, I authored Unmasking Facial Recognition: An exploration of the racial bias implications of facial recognition surveillance in the United Kingdom. The report looks beyond the question of accuracy and situates the technology within the broader context of racialised surveillance. It revealed that London’s Metropolitan Police failed to carry out an equality impact assessment prior to triallng the technology at events such as the Notting Hill Carnival. The report makes several recommendations and calls for a ‘generational ban’ on the technology. As a Councillor, I led a successful campaign in 2023 for Newham Council to back a ban on facial recognition surveillance in the East London borough.
Areeq Chowdhury 