Deepfakes have become a rising problem over the world as the power of artificial intelligence is now easily accessible to users over the internet. Last week, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi shared his concern over the problem when he saw a deepfake video of himself singing and dancing to garba.
The Government of India is now looking to implement a solid plan of action to counter deepfakes in the country. India’s IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw says that these plans will be ready in the next 10 days.
Government Looking to Tackle Deepfake on Priority
The Indian Government has acknowledged the power of artificial intelligence. With the rising cases of deepfakes in the country, GoI now considers it as a major threat to democracy. Officials are now looking into this matter to tackle the situation on a priority basis.
Addressing the situation, India’s IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that the government has a meeting today with key representatives from social media platforms, AI companies, and professors in the field of AI technology. The agenda of the meeting was to explore the rules and regulations that will be required to control irrational deepfakes.
The government is focusing on four key objectives on this matter. These are: identifying deepfakes and misinformation, preventing its spread, platform to report deepfakes, and lastly creating public awareness of the topic.
As per Minister Vaishnaw, the government will have a clear and actionable plan to counter deepfakes in the next 10 days. Another meeting is to be conducted in the first week of December to finalize a draft on deepfakes in the country.
Deepfakes Are on the Rise in India
To recall, the issue of deepfakes caught the limelight when a deepfake video of popular actress Rashmika Mandhana surfaced over the internet. It rang several bells of security across the country, and the negative potential of AI started to be highlighted among individuals.
Deepfakes have become so advanced, that even for the trained eyes of experienced people, it is difficult to spot the difference between a real video and deepfake content. Several free tools are available on the internet that can instantly create deepfakes, and some resources are also available on smartphones.
Hence, if the technology reaches the wrong hands, the end result of deepfakes can be disturbing. As AI is relatively new to the entire world, humanity is currently not ready to face the consequences of deepfake.
For reference, OpenAI, the world’s leading AI company, was reportedly close to developing a new AGI model that can think exactly like a human. The board members of the company feared this new technology so much, that they resorted to firing the CEO of the company Sam Altman.
If the world’s most advanced company is unsure of the applications of AI, it surely raises serious concerns about how the world will be impacted if AI is not regulated properly.
