Hundreds of people who signed an open letter Wednesday calling for regulation of deepfakes include Facebook whistleblower Francis Haugen, former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang, and one of the “godfathers” of artificial intelligence (AI). This includes Yoshua Bengio and others.
The letter, signed by more than 400 AI experts, artists, and politicians, criminalizes deepfake child pornography and creates criminal penalties for those who knowingly create or facilitate the spread of harmful deepfakes. He urged governments to pass legislation.
The letter also suggested that software developers and distributors need to prevent their products from creating harmful deepfakes and be held accountable if their measures are easily circumvented.
“Deepfakes pose a major threat to human society, and are already causing increasing harm to individuals, communities, and the functioning of our democracies,” Andrew Critch, an AI researcher at the University of California, Berkeley and lead author of the letter, said in a statement. I am giving,” he said.
“Urgent action is needed to combat the spread of deepfakes, and my colleagues and I created this letter as a way for people around the world to show support for legislative efforts to stop deepfakes. ” he added.
Deepfakes are “nonconsensual and grossly misleading” AI-generated audio, photos, and videos that can be mistaken for the real thing, a risk that is increasing as AI technology becomes more widespread.
An explicit AI-generated image of pop superstar Taylor Swift went viral last month, prompting the White House to express concern.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at the time: “We are alarmed by reports…of the dissemination of false images.”
“While social media companies make their own decisions about content moderation, we believe they have an important role to play in enforcing their own rules to prevent the spread of disinformation and non-consensual intimate images of real people. I believe,” she added.
A message mimicking President Biden’s was also sent to New Hampshire voters last month, urging them not to vote in the state’s primary and highlighting concerns about possible election misinformation.
Earlier this month, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) banned the use of AI-generated voices in robocalls. Last week, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also proposed rules to ban personal impersonation, noting the recent rise in AI-generated deepfakes.
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