India Takes Steps to Regulate Deepfakes Amid Global Concerns

Ashwini Vaishnaw, the Minister for Railways, Communications, Electronics, and Information Technology in India, stated on November 23 that the nation is developing regulations to regulate deepfakes.

This statement builds upon the previous day’s remarks by Prime Minister Narendra Modi regarding his apprehensions regarding technology.

The Indian government intends to finish drafting the regulations within the next few weeks, according to Vaishnaw’s statements in conversations with academics, industry associations, and social media companies, according to Reuters.

Deepfakes refer to audio or video recordings produced by artificial intelligence (AI) that replicate or substitute the voice and appearance of an individual from an existing video or audio sample while remaining convincing in their authenticity.

During the opening remarks of a G20 virtual summit, Prime Minister Modi cautioned against the negative societal repercussions of deepfakes and implored world leaders to work together to regulate artificial intelligence.

The regulatory drafting process, according to the report by Vaishnaw, will take into account penalties for both the social media platform and the user who uploaded the content.

This occurrence coincides with the global struggle by nations to establish regulations governing artificial intelligence.

President Joe Biden of the United States issued an executive order in October mandating that developers of artificial intelligence (AI) systems that may jeopardize the economy, public health, national security, or safety of the United States must disclose the outcomes of safety tests to the U.S. government before their public release.

Legislators in Europe have drafted proposed rules for possible approval the following month, and the United Nations has established a 39-member advisory body to address governance challenges in artificial intelligence.

The primary national intelligence agency of Canada, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, expressed apprehension in November regarding the utilization of AI deepfakes in disinformation campaigns that were executed globally.

A political commissar of the Network Security Bureau, Jinfeng Sun, disclosed in August that 79 cases of fraud involving deepfake AI, including impersonation via digital face-swaps, had occurred in China.

As a result, 515 individuals were arrested in connection with the Web3 sector.