Dr Dominic Lees

Dr Lees` expertise is in Generative AI in the screen industries.  He publishes and researches in the fields of deepfakes, voice cloning, and text-to-video, with a particular emphasis on the ethics of creativity using AI technologies. As a public-facing academic expert on AI, he has provided expert interviews to national media (Sky News, BBC Radio) and provide deepfake fact-checking for international news organisations (Reuters, Boom Live India).  Dominic Lees is the lead writer on AI for the BFI’s Sight & Sound magazine. 

His major research has been into deepfakes – the digital replacement of actors’ faces in film using systems of Artificial Intelligence.  He was Principal Investigator of the project Virtual Maggie (2019-20), which used a practice research methodology to explore how ‘machine learning’ could be used to digitally resurrect Margaret Thatcher in a contemporary drama. His work also examines the ethics and legal questions arising from deepfakes, and the impact on the performer in screen production. He is interested in the transformative impact of new technologies on the creative process in mainstream production, and on how deepfakes alter audiences’ relationship with screen fictions.