Deepfakes, fake news, and AI coming for our jobs… It's all covered in season four of The Morning Show. And GLAMOUR got the scoop with Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, Karen Pittman, Marion Cotillard, and Nicole Beharie, AKA the women of The Morning Show (TMS).
Our latest cover delves into the sisterhood at the heart of TMS, from the cast supporting one another off-screen – Reese is like a “sister from another mister”, says Jen – to the way women's stories are represented in the show itself; we're talking being a mother in the workplace, navigating sexual harrassment; and in the upcoming season, deepfake abuse.
For the uninitiated, deepfake abuse is when a person's voice and/or likeness is artificially manipulated to resemble them saying or doing something that didn't actually happen. Take London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan; last year, an audio circulated online of him appearing to disparage Remembrance weekend, which, in his words, nearly led to “serious disorder.”
We've also seen a rise in AI-generated sexual forgeries – more commonly known as ‘deepfake porn’ – which disproportionately impacts women. Deepfake porn is when a person's voice and/or likeness is mapped onto another person's nude image – usually without either individual's consent. Only a couple of weeks ago, Giorgia Meloni – Italy's first female Prime Minister – condemned an adult site for hosting non-consensual, AI-generated sexual images of herself and other women. Speaking to Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, Meloni said, "I want to express my solidarity and closeness to all the women who have been offended, insulted, and violated in their intimacy by the administrators of this forum and its 'users'."
Of course, TMS has never shied away from pressing social issues, but season four's exploration of deepfake abuse is about as timely as it gets.
Ahead of season four of the Emmy-winning Apple+ series, the women of The Morning Show – Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, Karen Pittman, Marion Cotillard, and Nicole Beharie – on flipping the narrative, redefining success, and having each other’s backs on set and in real life.
The first few episodes see Jennifer Aniston's character, Alex Levy, navigate deepfake technology in the newsroom. Yes, the storyline itself is unnerving, but it's gratifying to see this issue explored on such a prestigious drama series.
Over the past few years, GLAMOUR has been reporting on the development of deepfake technology with a keen eye on its potential impact on women. In fact, two years ago, we surveyed our readers and found that 91% of you believed deepfake technology posed a risk to women's safety. Since then, we've been part of the effort to lobby two successive governments to change the law on deepfake abuse, ensuring it's a criminal offence to create 'deepfake porn' of another person without their consent. [We're not done yet. Click here to support our campaign for a comprehensive Image-Based Abuse Law.]
While we've focused mainly on AI-generated sexual forgeries, season four of TMS explores how deepfake abuse can be weaponised against women in the workplace, from undermining their credibility to targeted attacks. But it's not all bad news. As Reese Witherspoon points out in GLAMOUR's The Morning Show cover, AI can (and should) be used as a force for good. But if we're going to safely incorporate it into our lives, we need women involved at every stage of the process.
“I’m always looking forward to how media is evolving and how I can help be part of bringing women along in those emerging industries," Reese explains. “And now we’re doing it with AI. It’s so, so important that women are involved in AI…because it will be the future of filmmaking. And you can be sad and lament it all you want, but the change is here.”
Jen, Reese, and other familiar faces.
In The Morning Show, we see how deepfake technology can be harnessed against powerful, famous women. Indeed, much of the media coverage of deepfake abuse centres on celebrities who have been victimised by it. As Amanda Manyame, Equality Now’s Digital Rights Advisor, previously told GLAMOUR, “Anyone can be a victim of deepfake image-based sexual abuse, but women in the public eye and positions of authority – such as celebrities, politicians, journalists, and human rights defenders – are particularly targeted.”
These stories are important, but they don't exist in a vacuum. Deepfake technology can be used against anyone, and its inherent invasive nature often stops survivors from speaking out or getting support.
Jennifer Aniston's Alex Levy says in season four of TMS, “In a world of deepfakes, conspiracies, and corporate propaganda machines, we have to question everything that we see and we hear, now more than ever.” As ever, I agree with Alex Levy, but I'd also go a step further. In addition to being critical of the content we consume, we must also call on tech companies and media platforms to effectively moderate it. Without these safeguards, we face a wild west of deepfake abuse. And that's not something a TV show – even one as brilliant as The Morning Show – can tackle alone.
The Morning Show season four is available to watch on Apple TV.
For more from Glamour UK's Lucy Morgan, follow her on Instagram @lucyalexxandra.
