About a month ago, Yamini Malhotra noticed that her followers were tagging her in videos shared with her from the account @rotahaler_. To the 30-year-old's surprise, artificial intelligence had been used to replace her face with that of actress Kajal Aggarwal in one of the videos. Malhotra was a victim of deepfakes.
“My Instagram followers can simply download my videos and repost them, thus increasing my reach. This time, someone had used my body and Kajal Aggarwal's face,” she said. mint.
The video started gaining popularity. Over the past four weeks, it has been shared by over 32,000 followers. Following this incident, several more unidentified Instagram accounts created deepfake videos of Malhotra, adding the face of an unknown woman onto a video of her walking in a green sari.
Privacy violation
“There is nothing I can do. The most I can do is send a copyright strike to Instagram. It's up to them to take it down or not,” Malhotra, who has over 853,000 followers on Instagram, said while expressing concerns over privacy violation and content tampering. A copyright strike is a legal copyright takedown request for the use of copyrighted content.
Deepfakes – lifelike fake videos created using artificial intelligence – are not only on the rise but also becoming more sophisticated thanks to advances in AI and machine learning technologies.
According to an April 25 survey on the impact of AI by computer security firm McAfee, three in four Indians have recently encountered deepfake content, and about 64% of respondents believe AI has made it harder to spot online fraud.
While some creators are capitalizing on the blurring of the line between real and synthetic content to gain attention, the industry as a whole sees it as a threat to content creators.
“Deepfakes are dangerous and content creators need to license their identities to prevent their content from being misused,” Anshul Khandelwal, chief technology officer at Invideo, an AI platform that generates videos from text, said at the HT Smartcast event last week.
Deepfake Porn
According to data collected by Instagram engagement-boosting platform Twicsy in March 2024, over 84% of influencers worldwide have fallen victim to deepfake pornography, with India being the second most vulnerable country after the United States. “The illegal creation of pornographic material targeted at influencers using deepfake technology is alarming…raising serious concerns around consent, digital safety and online harassment,” the report said. It also noted that female influencers are 90% more likely to fall prey to deepfake pornography than male influencers.
Lack of regulation in the content creation sector is one loophole. “The lack of regulation coupled with the boom in AI could pose a threat to intellectual property,” warns Viraj Sheth, co-founder and CEO of Monk Entertainment, a new media company that represents digital talent.
Companies are taking steps to curb the misuse of deepfakes, but industry experts are calling for more self-regulation.
“Deepfakes are a modern-day cybercrime phenomenon that has evolved over the last decade,” said Amiya Swarup, partner and marketing advisory leader at consulting firm EY.
Self-regulation is key
Generative AI technology and a lack of regulation around content creation means creators have to self-regulate. “Ultimately, the responsibility for content and self-regulation of content resides within the brand, hence all the checks and controls around influencer selection become important,” Swarup added.
Some companies, such as Adobe, are taking steps to introduce more checks and balances in content creation. Adobe's Content Trustworthiness Initiative gives users access to background information on content when they run it on a website, such as the application used to create it, the model it was made in, and who created it.
You are on Mint! India's No.1 News Site (Source: Press Gazette). For more of our business coverage and market insights, click here!
