After the use of artificial intelligence reaching new heights every day, there are also some negative impacts of it, like the deepfakes of people who never do something as shown in a manipulated image. Deepfakes are created by using deep learning, in which images or videos of a person are manipulated in such a way that it looks like they are doing something that they never did in their real life. The main problem with deepfakes is that after the evolution of artificial intelligence, anyone can do this easily using just their smartphones, which is scary.

Deepfakes of Famous Celebrities

Recently, a deep-faked video of an Indian actress, Rashmika Mandanna, surfaced over the internet. The original video was of Instagram influencer Zara Patel. The video was created in such a way that it was impossible to know whether it was deep-faked or not. Indian legendary actor Amitabh Bachchan shared his concern over Twitter regarding the deepfaked video and wanted some legal and regulatory framework to deal with deepfakes in India.

After the video went viral, an FIR was filed against it by the Delhi Police. Regarding the incident, the Indian Government has reminded social media platforms about the provisions and penalties related to deepfakes.

PM Narendra Modi’s take on the Deepfakes Issue

Deepfakes can easily manipulate elections; there are high chances that you get deepfake videos of ministers asking you not to vote for them or some memes on social media that can easily manipulate people not to vote for a given party. Recently, Indian Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi expressed concern over this deepfake issue; he said that he had been added to a deepfake video of a Garba dance performance that took place during the Navratri festival. He laughed and remarked, “Many friends forwarded it to me as well.” He added that although he had played Garba in school, he had not done so thereafter. The PM wanted Indian media to educate people and create awareness about artificial intelligence and how it can be used to create fakes in India.

Precautions to secure yourself from deepfakes:

To safeguard yourself from deepfake videos or images, you must take the necessary precautions:

1. There are high chances that a lot of people in India don’t even know about artificial intelligence and may believe whatever they see on the internet. So there is a need to tell them that whatever they see on social media or the internet shouldn’t be believed blindly; a sense of distrust must be there while using such apps.

2. If you ever get a video or image that you may think is fake or that you can’t believe, don’t share it with someone else and report it.

3. You need to know about important cyber security ethics in order to remain safe in the current digital environment. Not only will this increase your knowledge, but it will also help you keep safe and identify fake media.

4. If you ever become a victim of a deepfake, don’t worry; report it instantly to the police, your friends, and your family. You can also report it using the government website, cybercrime.gov.in.

Conclusion

Restrictions or laws regarding deepfakes or artificial intelligence must be placed as soon as possible in order to ensure the safety and security of a society. A legal framework should be imposed before it gets too difficult to control the issues, and people should be educated by creating awareness among them regarding artificial intelligence and how someone can tell if a video is deepfaked or not. Although AI has a lot of advantages, when you look at the other side, it creates a sense of worry about how fast it is evolving and what impacts it can have on our society.