The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday, Dec. 15, edition that disinformation -- a deliberate attempt to disseminate false information to inflict harm -- is traditionally associated with political activity, but it is also posing a growing risk to businesses of all sizes. The Globe's Rita Trichur writes that is because the use of artificial intelligence is putting a new twist on fraud by generating deepfakes of photos, audio clips and videos that are so convincing they can spark consumer boycotts and tank a company's stock price. "The technology is evolved enough now that even hobbyists these days can train an AI model on public people," said Dustin Heywood, the Canadian head of IBM X-Force, the technology company's global threat intelligence agency. Chief executive officers are prime targets for deepfakes, Mr. Heywood said, because maintaining a public profile is part of the job. For instance, CEOs regularly speak on earnings calls, at shareholder meetings and in television interviews. That means audio and video clips of them are regularly posted on-line. Mr. Heywood said: "They're constantly in public. You can take an AI model, train it on all of their public speaking and make fake videos, fake voice."