Deepfakes pose significant reputational, financial, and personal risks to executives, government officials, celebrities and private individuals. As generative AI advances, synthetic media—including images, videos, and audio files—are becoming ever-more prevalent and ever-less identifiable in both public and private fora. Attackers can create deepfakes at scale, at little cost, and can convincingly impersonate individuals and fabricate realistic scenarios for fraud, deception and abuse. In response, some celebrities have taken protective actions to define the boundaries of their identities, filing trademark applications for catchphrases, voices, and emblematic images of themselves but the scope of these protections is untested. What is the extent trademarking can protect personal or professional brand? How is the regulatory landscape responding to growing risk of deepfake fraud and abuse? What steps can individuals take to authenticate identity in this rapidly changing climate?

On July 29, Women Leaders in Cybersecurity convened a webinar of legal experts in intellectual property, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity to diagnose the latest deepfake threats posed to your personal brand.