Draft:Maty Bohacek

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Maty Bohacek is a Czech-born American computer scientist specializing in AI safety, deepfakes, and explainability. He is a student at Stanford University.[1] Previously, he was mentored by Hany Farid, with whom he created a deepfake of Anderson Cooper[2][3] and a detector of Volodomyr Zelenskyy's deepfakes.[4][5]

Research

Deepfakes

Bohacek's research has focused on both the creation of synthetic media for demonstrative purposes and the development of detection tools. Working with Farid, he produced a deepfake of CNN anchor Anderson Cooper using only open-source tools to illustrate how accessible deepfake technology had become to non-specialists.[6] He also developed a system to detect deepfakes of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, using the subject's distinctive facial, gestural, and vocal characteristics as identifying signals.[7] During the 2024 United States presidential election, Bohacek provided expert commentary for CBC News on an alleged political deepfake targeting Tim Walz.[8]

Model collapse

Together with Farid, Bohacek investigated the phenomenon of model collapse in generative AI systems, the degradation in output quality that results when models are retrained on data they themselves produced. Their research demonstrated that successive generations of retraining on AI-generated images cause outputs to deteriorate markedly, and that models struggle to recover even after subsequent exposure to authentic data.[9] The findings were highlighted in Nature in 2024.[10] In March 2025, Bohacek presented this body of work at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, as part of the institution's ongoing series on challenges and safeguards against AI-generated disinformation.[11]

Public engagement

In 2024-2025, Bohacek co-created and built Season 2 of Shell Game with journalist Evan Ratliff.[12] The season followed an attempt to launch and run a real startup staffed entirely by AI agents, exploring the implications of autonomous AI in the workforce. The podcast reached number one in the technology category on Apple Podcasts in December 2024.[13]

Recognition

Bohacek received the Moonshot Idea Award in 2022 for SPOTER, his sign language recognition project, from Moonshot Platform.[14] He appeared on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list for Central Europe in 2024.[15] In September 2025, he was awarded the Silver Medal of the President of the Senate of the Czech Republic by Senate President Miloš Vystrčil at a ceremony held at Valdštejn Palace in Prague on the Day of Czech Statehood, cited for "seeking truth and new paths in the digital world." [16]



References

  1. "Stephen Ibaraki: Interviews with leading business and IT experts".
  2. Bohacek, Matyas; Farid, Hany (2024). "The making of an AI news anchor—and its implications". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 121 (1) e2315678121. doi:10.1073/pnas.2315678121. PMC 10769834. PMID 38150500.
  3. Dickman, Jamie (2023). "Making a digital dupe of Anderson Cooper". Science. 382 (6677): 1367. Bibcode:2023Sci...382.1367D. doi:10.1126/science.adl4197. PMID 38127737.
  4. Boháček, Matyáš; Farid, Hany (2022). "Protecting President Zelenskyy against Deep Fakes". arXiv:2206.12043 [cs.CV].
  5. Bohacek, Matyas; Farid, Hany (2022). "Protecting world leaders against deep fakes using facial, gestural, and vocal mannerisms". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 119 (48) e2216035119. Bibcode:2022PNAS..11916035B. doi:10.1073/pnas.2216035119. PMC 9860138. PMID 36417442.
  6. Bohacek, Matyas; Farid, Hany (2024). "The making of an AI news anchor—and its implications". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 121 (1) e2315678121. doi:10.1073/pnas.2315678121. PMC 10769834. PMID 38150500.
  7. Bohacek, Matyas; Farid, Hany (2022). "Protecting world leaders against deep fakes using facial, gestural, and vocal mannerisms". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 119 (48) e2216035119. Bibcode:2022PNAS..11916035B. doi:10.1073/pnas.2216035119. PMC 9860138. PMID 36417442.
  8. "Deepfake, Matthew Metro, Tim Walz". Radio-Canada. 26 October 2024.
  9. Bohacek, Matyas; Farid, Hany (2023). "Nepotistically Trained Generative-AI Models Collapse". arXiv:2311.12202 [cs.CV].
  10. Gibney, Elizabeth (2024). "AI models fed AI-generated data quickly spew nonsense". Nature. 632 (8023): 18–19. Bibcode:2024Natur.632...18G. doi:10.1038/d41586-024-02420-7. PMID 39048876.
  11. "Detecting AI-Generated Content In The Era Of Model Collapse". Hoover Institution. 2025-03-05.
  12. Ratliff, Evan. "All My Employees Are AI Agents. So Are My Executives". Wired. {{cite magazine}}: Cite magazine requires |magazine= (help)
  13. "Shell Game". Kaleidoscope.
  14. "Moonshot Awards 2022". Moonshot Platform.
  15. "Forbes 30 pod 30: Matyáš Boháček". Forbes CZ. 6 May 2026.
  16. "Stříbrná medaile předsedy Senátu" (in Czech). Senát Parlamentu České republiky. January 2012.