The world is full of deepfakes, including videos, audio, and photos that make people appear to do or say things they didn’t or to be somewhere they’re not. Most deepfakes are explicit videos or images fabricated by mapping a celebrity’s face onto another person’s body. Some are used to defraud consumers or damage the reputations of politicians and members of the public. Advances in artificial intelligence allow you to summon them with just a few taps on your keyboard. Alarmed, governments around the world are looking for ways to fight back.
On February 8, the Federal Communications Commission made it illegal for companies to use AI-generated voices in robocalls. The ban comes two days after the FCC issued a cease-and-desist order against the companies responsible for deepfaking the president’s audio. joe biden. New Hampshire residents received robocalls from Biden before the state’s presidential primary, seemingly telling them to stay home and “save your vote for the November election.” The voice even uttered one of Biden’s signature phrases: “How awful.” There is currently no U.S. federal law banning deepfakes. Some states have enacted laws regarding deepfake pornography, but their application is inconsistent across the country, making it difficult for victims to hold creators accountable. A proposed European Union AI law would require platforms to label deepfakes as such.
