AI technology is advancing by leaps and bounds and revolutionizing many areas. However, it comes with many disadvantages. Deepfakes are among the dangers of this technology. Faced with the proliferation of this false digital content, experts are sounding the alarm and calling for stricter legislation.
A call for firm regulation to protect digital integrity
Current legislation regarding artificial intelligence does not sufficiently regulate the production and distribution of deepfake content. This is what a college of international experts deplores in a open letter entitled “Disrupting the deepfake supply chain” and published on February 21. These researchers call on legislators to adopt strict measures to put an end to the dissemination of deepfake content, in particular images and videos of a sexual nature or aimed at political disinformation.
The panel includes thought leaders such as Andrew Yang, Stuart Russell, Joy Buolamwini, Sarah Gardner, Gary Marcus, Steven Pinker, Sneha Revanur and many other influential figures. In this letter, the experts offer concrete recommendations to limit the multiple negative consequences of this content generated via AI.
They urge lawmakers to criminalize pornographic deepfakes and provide sanctions against the authors of this harmful content. Experts are also demanding that AI software developers and distributors take steps to prevent the creation of these deepfakes.
A response to the proliferation of these false recordings generated via AI
Deepfakes literally exploded in 2023. The Home Security Heroes site estimates that more than 95,820 deepfake videos were generated via AI and distributed over the past year. This is an increase of more than 550% if we compare these figures to those of 2019. Pornography constitutes a significant proportion of this content. It alone represents 98% of deepfake videos generated in 2023.
In the United States, for example, several deepfake contents have flooded social media in recent weeks. Fake pornographic images of the famous singer Taylor Swift first agitated the social network X. The published content was seen by more than 45 million Internet users and recorded hundreds of thousands of likes. Another pornographic video of some female students from a News Jersey high school generated with the help of AI has also gone viral on social media.
Finally, a deepfake audio spoofing President Joe Biden’s voice was made to prevent Democratic voters in the state of New Hampshire from showing up at the polls. These events underline the urgency of the situation and the importance of legislation that firmly condemns the production and dissemination of this false content created using AI.
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