By Christina Montgomery, Chief
Privacy & Trust Officer, IBM and Joshua
New, Senior Fellow, IBM Policy Lab
WASHINGTON, Feb. 28, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Deepfakes –
realistic AI-generated audio, video, or images that can recreate a
person's likeness – are one of the most pressing challenges posed
by generative AI, given the potential for bad actors to use it to
undermine democracy, exploit artists and performers, and harass and
harm everyday people.
These are not speculative risks. Already, deepfakes are being
used to spread election disinformation, capitalize on unsanctioned
imitations of musicians, and create nonconsensual pornography of
minors, private citizens, and celebrities alike. And as AI
capabilities continue to improve, these challenges will become even
more pernicious.
What this moment requires is both technical and legal solutions.
That's why IBM (NYSE: IBM) signed the Tech Accord to Combat
Deceptive Use of AI in 2024 Elections (Munich Tech Accord),
pledging to help mitigate the risks of AI being used to deceive the
public and undermine elections. It's also why IBM has long
advocated for regulations that precisely target harmful
applications of technology.
We outline below three key priorities for policymakers to
mitigate the harms of deepfakes:
- Protecting elections,
- Protecting creators, and
- Protecting people's privacy
Protecting elections
Democracy depends on a population's ability to participate in
free and fair elections. Unfortunately, bad actors can use
deepfakes to impersonate public officials and candidates to deceive
voters in a variety of ways that would undermine this key
principle. For example, deepfakes could mislead voters about where,
when, and how they can vote, or falsely portray a candidate making
controversial statements or participating in scandalous
activity.
Policymakers should prohibit the distribution of materially
deceptive deepfake content related to elections. For example, the
Protect Elections from Deceptive AI Act, introduced by Senators
Klobuchar, Hawley, Coons, and Collins, would curtail the use of AI
to generate deceptive content falsely depicting federal candidates
in political advertisements with the intent of influencing an
election. Other policy approaches could enable candidates targeted
by materially deceptive AI-generated content used in political
advertisements or fundraising campaigns to seek damages or remove
deceptive content, while preserving protections for free
speech.
In the EU, IBM has been supportive of the Digital Services Act,
which imposes on large internet platforms certain obligations
regarding the moderation of online content. Recent guidelines
published by the European Commission have also proposed additional
requirements for consumer-facing platforms to mitigate against
"systemic risks for electoral processes."
Protecting creators
Musicians, artists, actors, and creators of all kinds use their
talents and likeness to help shape culture, inspire, entertain, and
make a living. Deepfakes can enable bad actors to exploit creators'
likenesses to push deceptive advertising, scam and mislead
consumers, improperly reduce a creator's ability to profit from
their talents, and more.
Policymakers should hold people accountable for producing
unauthorized deepfakes of creator performances and hold platforms
accountable if they knowingly disseminate such unauthorized
content. Some jurisdictions already have what are known as
"likeness laws" that prohibit the unauthorized use of a person's
likeness for commercial exploitation, but these can be
inconsistent, and few explicitly cover digital replicas or the
rights to use a person's likeness after they die. Given these
jurisdictional inconsistencies, IBM supports the NO FAKES Act in
the U.S., which would create federal protections for individuals
whose voices and/or likenesses are generated by third parties
without their consent.
Protecting people's privacy
Everyday people are already being harmed by deepfakes in
profoundly concerning ways, particularly by bad actors using their
likeness to create nonconsensual pornography. This abuse primarily
targets women, victims have included minors, and could potentially
enable further abuse and extortion by bad actors. Nonconsensual
sharing of intimate imagery, also known as revenge porn, is
expanding with the use of deepfakes but ultimately is not a new
problem. But few existing laws adequately hold bad actors
accountable for sharing or threatening to share this material, or
necessarily cover AI-generated content.
Policymakers should create strong criminal and civil liability
for people that distribute nonconsensual intimate audiovisual
content, including AI-generated content, as well as for people that
threaten to do so. Penalties should be particularly severe when the
victim is a minor. Legislators can act on this recommendation now
by supporting and passing the bipartisan Preventing Deepfakes of
Intimate Images Act in the U.S. This bill would create liability
for individuals who disclose, or threaten to disclose, a
nonconsensual intimate digital depiction of someone, including
AI-generated content, and allow affected parties to pursue damages.
This legislation would create a much-needed federal baseline of
accountability that is inconsistently addressed in various revenge
porn laws at the state level, providing greater protections for
victims and individuals across the United
States.
The EU AI Act – which IBM has long-supported – already addresses
many of these types of issues, covering deepfakes more generally
and imposing transparency requirements that clarify when particular
content is not authentic. As policymakers look towards the Act's
implementation in the coming months, particular attention should be
paid to ensuring individuals are protected from non-consensual
intimate audiovisual content.
Conclusion
Solving the problems posed by deepfakes will require thoughtful,
whole-of-society approaches leveraging both changes in law and
technology. Technology companies have a responsibility to pursue
technical and governance solutions that address AI-generated
content, such as those articulated in the Munich Accord, the White
House Voluntary AI Commitments, and Canada's Voluntary Code of Conduct on the
Responsible Development and Management of Advanced Generative AI
Systems.
IBM encourages policymakers to seize this opportunity to swiftly
target three of the most significant harmful applications of
deepfakes to ensure that AI remains a positive force for the global
economy and society.
Media Contact:
Ashley
Bright
brighta@us.ibm.com
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