When Zoom CEO Eric Yuan opened a quarterly earnings name utilizing his AI avatar, a small badge appeared within the nook of the display screen: “CREATED WITH ZOOM AI COMPANION.” The intention was clear—sign transparency, reassure viewers, and indicate that customers can reliably distinguish actual people from AI-generated clips.
However there’s an apparent drawback:
Anybody can recreate that badge in beneath 30 seconds.
I attempted it. It’s trivial. And if I can do it, attackers can replicate it flawlessly. With Zoom making ready to launch photorealistic AI avatars in early 2025—digital replicas of staff studying scripted messages—the watermark turns into not a security management, however a false consolation. And false consolation is extra harmful than no safety in any respect.
Safety Theatre Disguised as Safety
Zoom’s avatars in 2025 aren’t autonomous—they’re scripted clips. The watermark is supposed to sign artificial content material, but it surely’s solely pixels. Even when Zoom provides cryptographic verification behind the scenes, most customers gained’t examine it. They are going to belief the badge, not the expertise.
This creates three escalating dangers:
1. False Confidence
Customers start to interpret the badge as proof of authenticity moderately than a warning signal.
2. Legitimised Deception
Attackers can add equivalent badges to deepfakes, making them seem official.
3. Decrease Vigilance
Customers cease questioning content material: “It had the Zoom badge, so I trusted it.”
Human Behaviour Makes It Even Extra Harmful
Deepfake-enabled fraud already exploits authority buildings. Within the $25.6 million Arup incident, staff obeyed faux executives on a video name regardless of doubts. Now think about these deepfakes carrying a well-known Zoom watermark.
In most organisations:
- Questioning executives feels dangerous
- Hierarchy suppresses skepticism
- Distant work normalises odd communication patterns
Attackers don’t must beat a safety system—they only must look respectable.
Normalization Turns Fraud Into Noise
As AI avatars develop into a regular a part of workflows, faux messages will mix seamlessly into each day operations. Suspicion drops, indicators blur, and fraud turns into tougher to detect.
This threat extends past Zoom. HeyGen already allows real-time avatars. Microsoft and Google will observe. The avatar ecosystem is increasing sooner than company safety tradition can adapt.
What Actual Safety Ought to Demand
Efficient safety would require:
- Cryptographic signing of each avatar clip
- Biometric enrollment verification
- Tamper-proof provenance metadata
- Revocation controls for compromised avatars
None of those protections are normal right this moment—and even when they existed, staff would nonetheless depend on the seen badge attackers can copy.
What Organisations Should Do Now
- Deal with watermarks as zero-trust. They aren’t authentication.
- Deal with all video directions as probably artificial. Confirm by way of secondary channels.
- Retire video as proof. Within the AI period, video is content material, not proof.
Safety theatre doesn’t simply fail to guard—it actively will increase threat by creating misplaced belief. As AI avatars develop into mainstream, organisations should replace verification norms, not depend on a pixel-based phantasm of security.
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