Why Smart People Fall for Deepfakes with Perry Carpenter

About this episode

The episode explores the impact of deepfakes and how they exploit human psychology, featuring insights from Perry Carpenter.

What if the most sophisticated attack has nothing to do with your firewall? In a world where AI can clone voices, re-lip-sync politicians, and spread a fake newscast to 200,000 people in days, the real target has always been your brain. Ron sits down with Perry Carpenter, Chief Deception Strategist at KnowBe4, to unpack why we're still getting fooled in 2026 and what we can actually do about it. Perry gets into the neuroscience behind why our brains are wired the way they are, how attackers exploit that, and what it really takes to build better instincts in a world full of AI-generated content. You'll also want to stick around for the live demos, where Perry breaks down why they worked and how to spot the tells. Impactful Moments00:00 - Introduction02:15 - The myth: smart people don't get fooled05:20 - Flashback segment: the Ireland deepfake and why it went viral06:15 - Guest introduction: Perry Carpenter 09:50 - Exploiting cultural bias and tribal instincts13:45 - Live deepfake demo: face and body replacement in real time15:30 - Synthetic media vs. deepfake: what's the difference?20:40 - Breaking down a deepfake: what made it convincing23:00 - Overproof: why bad deepfakes try…

People in this episode

Host: Ron

Guest: Perry Carpenter

Topics covered

• deepfakes
• cybersecurity
• neuroscience
• AI
• media manipulation

Keywords

• deepfakes
• AI
• cybersecurity
• neuroscience
• media manipulation
• Perry Carpenter
• KnowBe4

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: KnowBe4

Places: Ireland

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