Artificial Intelligence, Deepfakes and a Future of Ectypes

Abstract

In this chapter, I introduce the concept of “digital ectype”. An ectype is a copy that has a special relation with its source (the origin of its creation), the archetype, like the impression left by a seal. It is not the real thing, but it is clearly linked in a significant, authentic way with the real thing itself. I argue that digital technologies are able to separate the archetypal source – what was in the mind of the artist, for example – from the process (style, method, procedure) that leads from the source to the artefact. Once this link is severed, one can have digital ectypes that are “authentic” in style and content, but not “original”, in terms of archetypal source, and digital ectypes that are “original” in terms of archetypal source (they do come from where they purport to come) yet not “authentic” in terms of production, performance, or method (they are not the ones used by the source to deliver the artefact). In other words, digital ectypes can be authentic but unoriginal artefacts, or inauthentic but original artefacts.