There are a lot of aspects of artificial intelligence where people exaggerate the effect it will have on our daily lives, but this particular issue really can't be exaggerated beyond the reality, I don't think. It'll change our very definition of truth, even more than hyperpartisanship already has. I really don't think we're ready even for what's coming in the next year or two.

One terrifying thing about it is that it really isn't all that hard. These algorithms are new, and they're complex by the standards of standard algorithms. But right now a sufficiently nerdy individual with minimal programming experience can buy a textbook and have the necessary code for this kind of thing up an running within a month. A year from now, codes will be standardized, open source, and you wouldn't even have to know how they work to fabricate audio-visual evidence of just about anything. The Deepfakes porn stuff has already been turned into "user friendly" apps that can be run on a normal machine by someone with no AI background at all.

I would bet that some 2018 congressional races will be thrown by completely fabricated October surprises.