‘Today’ host Savannah Guthrie is demanding proof of life for her mother. Deepfakes will make that complicated

When Savannah Guthrie made a heart-wrenching plea to the kidnapper of her 84-year-old mother to send “proof of life,” she addressed the possibility of people creating deepfakes.

“We live in a world where voices and images are easily manipulated,” she said.
Before artificial intelligence tools proliferated — making it possible to realistically impersonate someone, in photos, sound and video — “proof of life” could simply mean sending a grainy image of a person who’s been abducted.

That’s no longer true.