Lorenz Meinen

Brief description of my doctoral project

My PhD thesis examines the impact of deepfakes on the law of evidence in criminal and civil proceedings. The determination of specific facts lies at the heart of both types of proceedings, which requires the use of evidence. Photos, videos, and audio recordings are considered particularly probative in this context. However, with advances in generative artificial intelligence, their evidentiary value is increasingly being called into question. In the United States, the so-called “deepfake defense” has already emerged, whereby a party argues that a particular piece of evidence is deceptively forged. My dissertation explores whether and how media-based evidence may be used for judicial fact-finding in the future.