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Y3: Creative AI — Art, Music & Stories, ResponsiblyLesson 8 of 12

8 · Deepfakes, consent & bias

Generative AI can do something genuinely dangerous: make fake images, video, or audio of real people doing or saying things they never did. These are deepfakes, and being able to spot the problem — and refuse to be part of it — is one of the most important things in this whole course.

Deepfakes and consent. Making a realistic fake of a real person without their permission can be cruel, harmful, and in many places illegal — and that's true even of "just a joke" about a classmate. The rule is short and firm:

  • Consent first, always. Never create AI images, video, or voice of a real person — a friend, a classmate, a celebrity, anyone — without their clear permission. Their face and voice are theirs.
  • Never use it to harm, humiliate, deceive, or bully. Fake "embarrassing" content, fake voices to trick someone, fake nudes (which are abuse, full stop) — none of it is a prank. If something would hurt or fool someone, don't make it, don't share it, and tell a trusted adult if you see it.
  • Be skeptical of what you see, too. Because fakes are now easy, a realistic image or clip isn't proof something happened. Check before you believe — or reshare.

Bias in what AI generates. Remember that AI learned from human-made data — which means it absorbs human bias too. Ask an image tool for "a CEO," "a nurse," or "a criminal" and it may keep showing the same narrow, stereotyped kinds of people, because that's what dominated its training data. It's not choosing to be unfair on purpose — it's repeating a lopsided pattern. Your job as a creator:

  • Notice the stereotype. When generated content quietly assumes who "a scientist" or "a beautiful person" looks like, that's bias showing.
  • Push against it on purpose, and don't let AI's defaults shrink how you see the world.

UNICEF is clear that AI involving children should protect them, avoid discrimination, and never be used to harm — and consent and dignity are central to that.

Think about it. A classmate wants to make a funny deepfake of another student "as a joke." Give two real reasons that's not okay — and what you'd say.

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8 · Deepfakes, consent & bias · ElementaryMBA