Prompt of the Week: The Deepfake Pre-Mortem

Hi Reader,

MIT Technology Review just put weaponized deepfakes on its "10 things that matter in AI right now" list.

Not "things to watch in 2027." Right now.

If you run comms for anyone with a public profile — a CEO, a founder, an elected official, a nonprofit head — you’re one synthetic 15-second clip away from a 3 AM phone call.

Most of us are still treating deepfake response as a problem future-us will deal with. That’s how most crises get worse.

So this week’s prompt is about flipping that: simulate the attack before it happens, and bank the response so you’re not drafting it at 3 AM.

👇🏽 Here’s the prompt:

Prompt of the Week

🎯 Expert Mode: The "Deepfake Pre-Mortem"

Scenario: Your CEO, founder, or principal client is a public figure. Someone will eventually release a synthetic video or audio clip of them saying something they never said. Your team needs a playbook now — not later.

Instructions:

1️⃣ Open a fresh chat in Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini.

2️⃣ Paste a short bio of your principal plus links (or pasted text) from 3–5 of their most public statements, interviews, or talks.

3️⃣ Drop in the prompt below.

Prompt: Act as a crisis communications strategist who specializes in synthetic media attacks. Based on the attached bio and public statements, generate the 5 most likely deepfake or voice-clone attack scenarios targeting this person in the next 12 months. For each scenario: name the attack vector (video, audio, image), the most believable fake statement a bad actor would put in their mouth, the audience most likely to be duped, and the reputational fallout if we take more than 4 hours to respond. Then rank them by combined likelihood and damage potential.

4️⃣ Review the top 3 scenarios and pick the one that scares you most.

5️⃣ Ask the AI to build out that scenario’s full response kit: holding statement, verification protocol, stakeholder FAQ, and a first-hour decision tree.

Suggested Tool: Claude or ChatGPT with Deep Research enabled if you want it to pull live context on recent deepfake attacks in your industry.

Why you’ll love it:

It forces you to confront the specific threats unique to your principal instead of running a generic “what if” drill.
It produces a response kit you can actually file in a shared drive and hand to legal or a comms counterpart on day one of a real incident.
It turns 90 minutes of AI work into what used to cost a three-week crisis-comms retainer.

Crisis response is always 10x easier when the first draft already exists. Use this to make sure it does.

Talk soon,

Chris

I've been working on something for the past few months, and it's finally here.

AI Agents for PR Pros is a 6-week cohort I built with the team at CommsCollectiv, launching May 5. Every participant leaves with a working agent they built themselves. No coding, no API keys, built entirely in Claude Cowork.

Watch the video below for the full picture. If it sounds like what you've been waiting for, registration is open now.

👇🏽 Register now and get 20% off for being a loyal subscriber!

Here are a few articles from the past week to help keep you up to speed:

Google I/O 2026: How the AI search update changes SEO and brand visibility
Launchcodex / Google Blog May 19, 2026 Google's biggest I/O announcement for PR pros: AI Mode has surpassed one billion monthly users, and brands cited inside AI answers earn 35% more organic clicks and 91% more paid clicks than non-cited competitors on the same query. For communicators, the metric is shifting — it's no longer about ranking, it's about being named.
AI backlash becomes a real business risk
Axios May 17, 2026 New polling shows consumer excitement about AI has dropped from 50% to 19% in just two years — and 54% of Americans say they're experiencing AI fatigue. For brand communicators, this is a strategic warning: how you talk about AI is now a reputational variable, and audiences are increasingly punishing companies that feel AI-heavy or tone-deaf.
How AI Has Changed the Rules for Content Creation
O'Dwyer's PR News May 15, 2026 Content is no longer scarce — credibility is. This sharp piece argues that AI floods channels with volume while real scarcity shifts to verifiable, consistently sourced, human-edited information. The communications teams that win will be those applying editorial judgment, not just output speed.
The State of AI Regulation for Brands: May 2026
EPR / PR News May 2026 A national brand campaign now crosses at least five different state AI compliance regimes. This deep-dive maps the patchwork — including New York's synthetic performer disclosure rules effective June 2026 and the EU AI Act's accelerated disclosure deadline of December 2, 2026. The strategic case: build to the strictest standard now, and roll it down.
2026 Report: Confidence Gap Hinders AI in Communications
Tech Intel Pro May 2026 Communicators rate AI as urgent (7.4/10) and valuable (8.1/10) — but their confidence in actually using it effectively lands at just 4.2/10. Access to tools isn't the bottleneck. Belief is. Worth sharing with your CMO when making the case for dedicated AI practice time.