The pre-project Deepfakes and Crime brings together the Norwegian Police University College, the University of Oslo, SINTEF and the Norwegian Computing Center to examine how deepfakes may influence assessments and decision-making in criminal investigations and proceedings. The project is part of TRUST – Norwegian Centre for Trustworthy AI and will provide the foundation for a proposal to establish a full-scale research project within TRUST in June 2027.
Deepfakes are defined here as AI-generated or AI-manipulated representations in the form of images, video, audio or text (or combinations of these media) that create the impression that individuals have said or done something they did not actually say or do.
The pre-project comprises three sub-projects: (1) a scoping review examining how deepfakes affect assessments and decision-making related to deepfake detection and media content authentication in criminal investigations and proceedings; (2) a mapping of existing technologies and methods for deepfake detection and media content authentication, including their capabilities and limitations; and (3) interviews with police investigators, digital forensic practitioners, judges and relevant stakeholders from the public and private sectors to explore experiences, practical challenges, needs and perspectives concerning deepfakes in the criminal justice system and related areas.
By combining social science, legal and technological perspectives, the project will produce an overview of existing research and knowledge gaps, a technology map of relevant detection and authentication methods, and a stakeholder-informed research agenda to support the development of a larger follow-up project.
The work draws on a use case developed by police partners in the project and input from partners associated with TRUST Action Cluster 6, Combating Criminality with AI.
