“Just imagine the whole society just crumbling over AI.”
People in Iceland don’t have to imagine it. That quote from Siggi Arnason, CEO of OverTune, is describing the fallout from a viral video that his company’s AI-powered technology helped create. The video was a comedy sketch that featured a recreation of a popular deceased Icelandic comedian, Harman Gunnarsson. After it aired, over 90% of the country ended up seeing it, and in response, the country’s parliament is fast-tracking legislation around deepfakes and the use of AI.
Another effect of the controversy is that OverTune has gone viral. Arnason spoke to John Biggs on The Media Copilot podcast about the skit and the resulting firestorm. Arnason, a former musician and self-described “lover of cats,” is unique in that he never wanted to be an AI influencer. But when his team built Iceland’s first deepfaked political comedy sketch, he knocked over a can of cod. Now his country is wrestling with the concepts of ownership, creativity, and the future of AI.
Image credit: DALL-E
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