Cybercrimeology

Signals, Deception, and AI: Navigating Trust in the Digital World

Episode Summary

In this episode, we dive into the fascinating world of signaling theory with Judith Donath, a faculty advisor at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University and author of The Social Machine. We explore signaling theory and its roots in biology and human communication and how it applies to today's digital ecosystems. With the rapid advancement of AI, deep fakes, and machine learning, the integrity of communication and signals is more crucial than ever. How can we distinguish between genuine signals and those designed to deceive us?

Episode Notes

About our Guest:

Judith Donath

https://cyber.harvard.edu/people/jdonath

Key Discussion Points:

• Understanding Signaling Theory:
  • The foundation of signaling theory in communication.
  • The balance between honest and deceptive signals.
• Evolutionary Biology and Communication:
  • Darwin's insights on animal communication.
  • Zahavi's Handicap Principle and its role in ensuring signal honesty.
  • Maynard Smith's Index Signals and their reliability without cost.
• AI and the Evolution of Communication:
  • The impact of AI on the reliability of communication signals.
  • Challenges posed by deepfakes in video and audio.
  • The arms race between deception technologies and verification methods.
• Cultural and Institutional Roles:
  • How culture and institutions uphold the reliability of signals.
  • The interplay between technological advancements and societal norms.
• Future of Communication in the Digital Age:
  • Strategies for developing secure communication channels.
  • Balancing privacy with the need for verification.
  • The role of trusted sources in maintaining signal integrity.

Papers and Books Mentioned:

Turing, A. M. (1950). Computing machinery and intelligence. Mind, 59(236), 433-460. https://doi.org/10.1093/mind/LIX.236.433

Zahavi, A. (1975). Mate selection—a selection for a handicap. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 53(1), 205-214. https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-5193(75)90111-3

Veblen, T. (1899). The Theory of the Leisure Class. New York: Macmillan.

https://moglen.law.columbia.edu/LCS/theoryleisureclass.pdf

https://dn720401.ca.archive.org/0/items/theoryofleisurec01vebl/theoryofleisurec01vebl.pdf

Weizenbaum, J. (1966). ELIZA—A computer program for the study of natural language communication between man and machine. Communications of the ACM, 9(1), 36-45. https://doi.org/10.1145/365153.365168

Donath, J. S. (2002). Identity and deception in the virtual community. In Communities in cyberspace (pp. 37-68). Routledge.

https://vivatropolis.com/papers/Donath/IdentityDeception/IdentityDeception.pdf

Current Progress on the forthcoming book: Signals, Truth & Design

https://vivatropolis.com/judith/signalsTruthDesign.html

Donath, J. (2014). The social machine: designs for living online. MIT Press.https://direct.mit.edu/books/monograph/4037/The-Social-MachineDesigns-for-Living-Online

Other:

The Story about the Ferrari executive Deepfake attempt

https://www.carscoops.com/2024/07/ferrari-ceo-impersonator-uncovered-by-colleague-in-deepfake-call/

We geeked out for a moment on Programming languages. Learn about them here.

The C language

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_(programming_language)

Introduction to C

https://www.w3schools.com/c/c_intro.php

APL Language

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APL_(programming_language)

Learn APL

https://xpqz.github.io/learnapl/intro.html

Try APL

https://tryapl.org

LISP Language

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisp_(programming_language)

Learn LISP

https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/introduction-to-lisp/