There has been this fear that artificial intelligence can be utterly misused. Events unfolding in recent days show that the fear is not unfounded. Last week, a video on social media rekindled fears about deepfakes, a type of AI-generated media that is hard to detect as synthetic. The video was a clip of a woman walking into an elevator. The video that went viral had the face of Telugu actor Rashmika Mandanna. The woman in the original clip was British-Indian social media influencer Zara Patel. The video went viral because it was a deepfake of a female celebrity.
In 2020, researchers uncovered what was then a rudimentary but still dangerous, underground service called DeepNude. It allowed people to create fake nude images by supplying regular photos of an individual. A vast majority of the anonymous users who had used it had done so to create non-consensual intimate images of women. In the time since, there have already been arrests, police investigations and legal changes to outlaw such images, especially in several western nations. AI is still a new phenomenon in India. It is yet to make its way into the Indian market in a huge way. The event of recent days shows that it can be massively used to harm individuals. If AI becomes a big thing in India and with easy access to the internet, this is a potential time bomb. The authorities need to gear up and take measures to ensure that its rampant misuse is stopped.