HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – If a generative artificial intelligence deepfake harms your reputation and was created without your permission, you can now file a civil lawsuit against its creator.
This is included in one of the new laws Gov. Josh Green signed this week. Prohibits the harmful use of deepfake images and videos and creates a path for victims to recover up to $25,000 per piece of content.
“Coconut Wireless will have spread that deepfake across the island before you can even utter a word of correction, just like the deepfake we created together with your permission,” said Gabriel Yanagihara, an AI consultant and educator who created this reporter’s deepfake in a previous article.
Yanagihara said states are trying to stay ahead of the federal government in protecting people from AI-generated fraud.
“We’re seeing a lot of scams using deepfakes, where people copy your voice or your image and use it to try to scam you out of you, defame your reputation, or blackmail you by saying, ‘Hey, I created this deepfake image. Unless you send money somewhere, I’m going to send this to everyone on LinkedIn,'” he said.
“Was it generated by a computer, or was it generated by, say, Ben Gutierrez? Did Ben say it, or was it generated by a computer that some person manipulated what Ben said?” said Jerry Agruza, a professor at the University of California’s Sidler College of Business.
Agrusa co-authored a research paper published this week on public trust in generative AI. It found that over 80% of those surveyed said deepfakes could mislead people or put their personal data at risk. Only 54% said deepfakes could be useful. Nearly 25% answered “I don’t know.”
“Right now, we’re always thinking, ‘Is this real, is it real now, where did it come from?’ And I think if we can have some form of guardrails, we can reap even more of the benefits of generative AI,” Agrusa says.
Experts say the new laws will help, but education will be key as AI becomes more widespread and improved.
“Just get written citations and written sources. Like the video you and I shot, get permission from people,” Yanagihara said. “Don’t create dialogs in advance and use tools like Photoshop.”
“The issue is trust,” Agrusa said. “If you trust something that you deem to be legal, you’re more likely to use it and it’s more beneficial.”
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