“Deepfake Executives, Created Via Depositions, Pose Grave Threat”: Protective Order Suggested

Sabrina Rose-Smith and Elizabeth Tucci, raised an interesting issue in Deepfake Executives, Created Via Depositions, Pose Grave Threat (Bloomberg Law Mar. 24, 2026).

They point out that video deposition are provide “high-quality source material for increasingly accessible generative AI systems.” The article points to the value of these depositions because they “offer nearly ideal conditions: clear, uninterrupted footage of a subject’s face; professional-grade resolution; controlled lighting; minimal background noise; and extended, articulate speech. Witnesses are instructed to speak clearly and answer fully, precisely the conditions that make AI training data most effective.”

The authors provide an example:

The reputational and financial stakes are substantial, and they are not merely hypothetical. In 2024, a Hong Kong finance worker was duped into transferring $24 million in a videocall in which the company’s chief financial officer and several other company employees—all deepfakes—appeared to authorize the transaction.

They suggest that “[t]raditional protective orders may be insufficient.”

One solution that they suggest is:

Counsel should treat video deposition files as sensitive digital assets: stored on encrypted platforms, distributed only to essential personnel, with access logs and clear destruction timelines once litigation concludes. Modern protective orders should explicitly prohibit AI-generated manipulation and restrict use of footage as training data. [emphasis added].

The article adds: “The legal profession’s duty of technological competence extends to this evolving threat.”  The authors conclude:

Practically, this may mean: limiting video depositions to cases where they are genuinely necessary; hardening digital custody of recordings; updating protective order language to address synthetic media; and preparing crisis response protocols on the assumption that a fabricated video could surface.

Another option is an Order Prohibiting Upload of Confidential Discovery Documents to Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) (Nov. 3, 2025).