Podcast Summary:

UnHerd with Freddie Sayers
Episode: Yanis Varoufakis: The most deepfaked man on YouTube!
Date: December 30, 2025
Host: Freddie Sayers
Guest: Yanis Varoufakis

Episode Overview

This episode explores the unsettling phenomenon of AI-driven deepfakes through the lens of Yanis Varoufakis, former Greek finance minister and frequent commentator. Varoufakis recounts his personal experience of being one of the most deepfaked individuals on YouTube, reflecting on the broader implications for trust, free speech, techno-feudalism, and democracy in a world awash with realistic but false digital personas. The conversation oscillates between personal anecdotes, sharp philosophical inquiry, and speculation on how society must respond.

Key Discussion Topics & Insights

1. The Deepfake Phenomenon: Yanis's Experience

• Showcasing the Deepfakes
  • The episode opens with Freddie Sayers playing clips of widely circulated, AI-generated videos in which “Yanis” delivers powerful political analysis—but the real Yanis never recorded them ([03:03], [04:06], [04:32]).
  • The fake videos are indistinguishable in tone, voice, and style, and rack up hundreds of thousands of views, complete with attention-grabbing thumbnails and misleading network logos ([04:42]).
• Reaction to Discovering the Fakes
  • Yanis describes first discovering a deepfake when a respected colleague complimented him on a video he had not made. He only realized it wasn’t him after noticing wardrobe inconsistencies ([08:54]).
  • The language and arguments of the fakes are often close to what Yanis might genuinely express, making them extra deceptive.

  “It was two minutes into the video that I realized it wasn't me … The analysis is not far off mine. … But then … a sentence would be inserted that I would never have said. And that is where the defamatory part starts.” – Yanis Varoufakis ([08:54])

2. Motives and Impact Behind Deepfakes

• Varied Intentions
  • Some deepfake channels are designed to discredit him by fabricating pro-Russian or pro-Putin statements he would never make, attempting to manipulate both audiences for and against him ([11:23]).
  • Other channels appear to be run by admirers, but still profit from misusing his likeness and words—with or without disclaimers.

  “Some of them … were very clearly created by pro Russia forces … intent was … to present me as a pro Putin commentator, both to ingratiate themselves with the Russian regime and also to defame me amongst my own audience.” – Yanis ([11:23])
  "There is one ... which actually has a very nice disclaimer ... but ... they try to make it clear it's not me. The likeliness is not." – Yanis ([11:23])

• Commercial Incentives
  • The root cause is identified as the platform monetization models: attention translates directly to ad revenue, incentivizing such videos regardless of truth or accuracy ([13:07], [15:20]).

  “...it's not a question of laziness. I think it's a question of interest. They maximize their rents because they charge substantial sums for the advertising ... using this captured attention of the audience and it is their business model to do this.” – Yanis ([15:20])

3. Platform Responsibility & Frustrations

• Response from Big Tech
  • Varoufakis describes the ineffective, often AI-generated responses from Google and Meta after he reported the fakes ([13:07]).
  • Even when one channel was removed, identical content quickly re-emerged elsewhere.

  “...within two weeks ... this was a losing game, that they could recreate these videos hydra like, ... much faster than I could chop off those heads. So in the end, Freddie, I gave up.” – Yanis ([13:07])

• Skepticism About Platform Accountability
  • Sayers draws a parallel to how quickly copyright strikes are enforced, suggesting that platforms could act against deepfakes if it aligned with their interests ([14:30]).

  “It's striking to me that a corporation ... is being really quite lazy about getting rid of just overt deepfakes.” – Freddie Sayers ([14:30])

4. The Philosophical Upside: Judging Arguments, Not Personas

• A Potential "Silver Lining"
  • Yanis speculates that, at the logical endpoint of deepfakes, audiences may be forced to judge ideas on their own merits, rather than being swayed by reputation or presentation ([16:50]).

  “...the logical limit is that we will never believe any video again. ... maybe we will develop the long lost art of judging what we hear in terms of the merits of the argument, not in terms of how much we like or dislike the person who said it or how eloquently this person has said it.” – Yanis ([16:50])

5. Dangers: Oligarchy, Trust, and Technofeudalism

• Freddie’s Concern: Collapse of Trust & Information Quality
  • Sayers is skeptical of the upside, fearing that most people will simply be overwhelmed by false information, returning us to an age when reliable news is a luxury ([18:58]).

  “...we go back to a world where access to good information is a luxury product ... and most people are just going to be believing all sorts of hooey.” – Freddie Sayers ([18:58])

• Yanis’s Broader Critique of Big Tech (“Technofeudalism”)
  • Yanis frames the whole situation within his theory of “techno-feudalism”—the idea that Big Tech now exercises a sovereignty akin to medieval lords, with ordinary users functioning as digital serfs ([20:35]).

  “...we are not even new cloud serfs who are not even in control, in possession ... of our audiovisual identity. This is techno feudalism gone berserk.” – Yanis ([20:35])

6. Democracy and Herding Public Opinion

• Skepticism of "Real" Democracy
  • Yanis rejects the notion that contemporary Western societies have achieved true democracy, asserting that public opinion has long been herded by elites and that free speech is often honored more in the breach ([24:35]).
  • He emphasizes the foundational Athenian principle of Isigoria—the right to have arguments judged on merit, not personality ([16:50], [24:35]).
• Call to Action for Property Rights and Digital Commons
  • Yanis calls for reclaiming ownership of digital identity, likening the fight against Big Tech to historical battles against feudal kings ([26:57]).

  “...I don't believe in regulation, I don't believe in estate regulating stuff. I believe in property rights. For me, what really matters is who owns what.” – Yanis ([26:57]) “I believe in Digital Commons. ... I'm old enough ... to remember the Internet as a commons. ... we were sharing them ... as a cooperative exercise ... Whereas with this privatization of what I call cloud capital ... that's for me, technofeudalism, that's what needs to be fought...” – Yanis ([26:57])

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the insidiousness of deepfakes:

  “That's two minutes [watching a deepfake] is an eternity when you have somebody saying things you never said but which you could have said.” – Yanis ([08:54])

• On Big Tech’s indifference:

  “...what surprises me is the diversity of intent. … there are channels ... created by pro Russia forces ... to defame me amongst my own audience ... But then there are other channels ... fans of [my] work.” – Yanis ([11:23])

• On the futility of fighting deepfakes:

  “...they could recreate these videos hydra like, ... much faster than I could chop off those heads. So in the end ... I gave up.” – Yanis ([13:07])

• On the philosophical upside:

  “The logical limit is ... we will never believe any video again. ... maybe we will develop the long lost art of judging ... merits.” – Yanis ([16:50])

• On digital property rights and technofeudalism:

  “...what really matters is who owns what. ... With this privatization ... of cloud capital ... that's for me, technofeudalism, that's what needs to be fought in the same way feudalism was fought.” – Yanis ([26:57])

• On democracy as aspiration, not achievement:

  “Democracy is a great idea to aspire to, but we never had really democracy. ... Herding of public opinion has been part and parcel of these oligarchic societies.” – Yanis ([24:35])

Key Timestamps for Major Segments

• [03:03] – [04:42]: Examples of deepfake Yanis videos and commentary
• [08:54]: Yanis describes first discovering a deepfake of himself
• [11:23]: On the motives behind the deepfakes (political and economic)
• [13:07]: Frustrations with Big Tech’s response; hydra-like persistence of deepfake content
• [15:20]: Yanis on why platforms don’t act decisively against deepfakes
• [16:50]: Isigoria and a possible upside: judging arguments, not personas
• [18:58]: Freddie’s concern about loss of trust and quality information
• [20:35]: “Technofeudalism” and loss of control over one's digital identity
• [24:35]: Varoufakis’s view on Western democracy and herd opinion management
• [26:57]: Call for reclaiming digital commons and collective property rights

Tone & Takeaways

The tone is a mix of wry frustration, critical analysis, and philosophical optimism:

• Yanis expresses deep concern over losing ownership of his own voice, while clinging to the hope that technology gone rogue could prod us to become critics of arguments, not personalities.
• Freddie Sayers tempers this with skepticism about the average person's ability to resist digital deception, warning of deepening inequality in access to trustworthy information.
• The episode closes on Yanis's resolve to stay hopeful—historically, even entrenched systems can be challenged and changed.

Concluding Thought

As deepfakes multiply, the challenge is not just technological, but fundamentally political and philosophical: we must reclaim ownership over our digital selves and rediscover the art of judging what is said, not just who (or what) appears to say it.

End of Summary