NGH Group CEO Nicholas G. Himonidis recently appeared on the DivorceLawyer.com Podcast to discuss “Deepfakes, Divorce, and Deception” and how artificial intelligence (AI) is presenting huge challenges for evaluating digital evidence in divorce and custody proceedings.
Advancements in AI technology make it easy for laypeople to fabricate audio and video evidence. “When people think about AI, they think about ChatGPT and other large language models,” Himonidis noted. “You ask it questions, you feed it information, you ask it for some output.” But AI can also make audio or video forgeries, or deepfakes.
In divorce and custody cases, NGH Group forensic examiners frequently encounter AI-created audio recordings because they’re so easy to make. “They’re so effective, and they are incredibly difficult for anyone other than a forensic expert to detect as not real.”
Previously, if a client told an attorney that a recording or photo wasn’t real, the attorney may have been unsure how to assess this claim and its applicability to the divorce or custody case. Now, said Himonidis, with audio, video, text messages, and other digital evidence being easier than ever to fake, attorneys have a “serious obligation” to vet the material professionally and determine its authenticity.
The episode highlights the technological challenges that attorneys face, as well as new legal frameworks that Himonidis considers critical to address potential AI-generated deception.
Listen to this free, 33-minute episode on the legal and ethical challenges posed by AI.