Preventing and Responding to Gender-based Violence Scenario Series

When a deepfake impacts her credibility.

How to cite this learning scenario

Arantes, J. (2025). When a deepfake impacts her credibility. www.AI4education.org. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
abstract
This scenario explores reputational harm after a female academic is impersonated using GenAI to deliver absurd, fabricated claims in a fake lecture video. Though framed by students as “a joke,” the content spreads widely, leading a funding body to question her professional credibility. The institution is slow to respond, viewing the case as trivial. While the majority of deepfakes globally target women in sexualised ways, it is essential that good governance of AI in education does not ignore the underlying gendered dynamics of mimicry and humiliation. This case reveals how digital harm, even when not explicit, can degrade professional standing, amplify bias, and create unsafe conditions for women in public-facing academic roles.

"It was meant to be funny. But I’m the one answering emails from national funders, trying to explain that I I do actually know what I am talking about."

Deepfakes: It's too late the post has gone viral already.

Professor Laila Peters, a well-regarded academic in environmental science, has several of her lectures publicly available online. Students in a large first-year unit use these to train a GenAI video model to produce a deepfake lecture. In the video, Laila appears to state that climate change is a conspiracy. The likeness is precise, her voice, accent, pacing, and gestures are indistinguishable from real recordings. The video circulates as a meme, and although it doesn't go viral, it spreads via academic social networks, as it fundamentally opposes her standpoint. It is eventually sent to her by a national research funding partner requesting clarification. Liala is shocked. She had no idea the video existed until then. She contacts her institution, but the response is delayed. While the incident is recorded, there is no coordinated risk management process or incident reporting scheme - the focus was on sexualised videos. Leadership dismisses the deepfake as “satirical” - being told "Oh, it was just a joke." Although not sexual in content, it is clear that the reputational damage is deeply gendered. Laila is one of very few women in her discipline’s leadership pipeline, and one of the only female thought leaders in her space. Her authority is already vulnerable to casual undermining. She is now viewed with suspicion in public forums and while, she doesn't self-censor during future lectures, she notices that invitations to speak start to dwindle. Globally, most deepfakes target women through sexualised content. But this case shows how non-sexual deepfakes can also function as gendered violence by degrading credibility and forcing women to bear the burden of proving their legitimacy.

Research Topics

Research Questions

How do gendered power structures shape the institutional response to reputational deepfakes? What systems are in place to protect academic credibility in an age of synthetic speech? How are non-sexualised deepfakes complicit in the broader ecosystem of gender-based technological harm?
Potential Research Topics
Reputational violence through AI-generated academic content Gender and credibility in non-sexual deepfake scenarios The role of humour and mimicry in digital workplace harassment


Data Collection

1. Conduct trauma-informed interviews with teachers who have experienced viral online abuse to explore its psychosocial impact.2. Facilitate reflective focus groups with educators to examine how fears of deepfake abuse influence pedagogical choices. 3. Collect anonymised staff incident reports and conduct a short survey on digital safety concerns to inform school-wide policy gaps.4. Conduct narrative interviews with diverse educators (eg LGBTQI+) to explore how experiences of platform-enabled abuse intersect with gender expression, sexuality, and digital visibility.
Ask: Have you been impersonated or mimicked using GenAI in a professional context Was your complaint taken seriously even when the content was framed as humour How did this event impact your sense of authority or safety in your academic role


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Acknowledgement of CountryWe acknowledge the Ancestors, Elders, and families of the Kulin Nation, who are the Traditional Owners of the land where this work has been predominantly completed. As we share our own knowledge practices, we pay respect to the deep knowledge embedded within the Aboriginal community and recognise their custodianship of Country. We acknowledge that the land on which we meet, learn, and share knowledge is a place of age-old ceremonies of celebration, initiation, and renewal, and that the Traditional Owners’ living culture and practices continue to have a unique role in the life of this region.
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