Recently, in the case of Huang v. Tesla, 19cv346663 (California Superior Court, County of Santa Clara), Tesla attorneys argued that their client’s CEO, Elon Musk, could not “admit or deny” the accuracy of videotaped statements allegedly made by him because “of the ease with which deepfakes can be made.” The statement at issue, which was allegedly made by Musk in 2016 involved the autonomous driving capabilities of the Tesla Model S and Model X vehicles.

Specifically, in the video, which had been available for years on the internet, Musk can be heard saying that those vehicles had the capability (in 2016) of driving “autonomously with greater safety than a person. Right now.”