A new crisis is emerging due to deepfakes, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while terming the misuse of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for creating these as problematic. This, he said, is one of the looming issues going ahead. The PM was addressing newspersons at a Diwali Milan function organised at the BJP headquarters, in New Delhi on November 17.
PM Modi’s warning is timely as deepfakes have spread like wildfire, sparing none – from gullible commoners to the holders of hight offices. To prove his point, the PM cited a deepfake video of him doing garba. “Many friends forwarded it to me as well,” he said with a laugh, adding that while he did play garba when he was in school, he had not done so since.
It needs to be emphasised that Modi-baiters are misusing deepfakes not only to malign him, but also to derail his policies and programmes and divide the nation. It poses a serious threat to national security.
‘The Liar’s Dividend’
The deepfake technology is being used as tool for circulation of disinformation to manipulate public opinion in democratic societies. It has altered the dynamics of the information landscape by crowding it and subduing the flow of authentic information. It can lead to, what experts term, ‘The Liar’s Dividend’.
In the ongoing Russia-Ukraine crisis, for instance, rivals are using deepfake videos of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urging their respective troops to lay down arms.
With the growing use of social media, India is particularly vulnerable to gross misuse of deepfakes. The Narendra Modi Government has taken the lead in combating it by signing the first global pect of losing their safe harbour protection under the Information Technology Act.
Regulatory mechanism
Conscious of the fact that as the AI technology grows, the threat from deepfakes will multiply, the Government is taking steps to put in place specific AI regulatory mechanisms to check such incidents. It has put on fast track the task of an omnibus Digital India Act to remove loopholes in the existing IT law.
The Government is also updating the rules under the Digital Personal Data Protection law to bring deepfakes and other possible threats from the AI technology under its ambit.
However, as PM Modi pointed out while flagging the threat, the misuse of Artificial Intelligence for creating deepfakes is problematic and the Government and its law enforcement agencies can’t meet the challenge on their own. “The media must educate the people about it,” he stressed.
