When the first question directed at Greg Abel, Berkshire Hathaway’s new CEO, at the company’s annual shareholder meeting Saturday came from “Warren from Omaha,” it seemed like a tongue-in-cheek sendup highlighting how Warren Buffett, the investing legend who led the conglomerate for six decades, continued to have an indelible impact even without day-to-day leadership.
But this was more than just an inside corporate joke.
Abel told the audience that the stunt, which included video of Buffett appearing at a microphone wearing a dark suit, did not involve the participation of the former CEO (who was legitimately in the audience). Rather, it was a deepfake — a technologically-generated avatar that looked and sounded like Buffett — created to illustrate the cybersecurity risks made possible by recent advances in artificial intelligence…