Microsoft's Brad Smith points to deep fakes as ‘biggest issue’ around AI
The 65-year-old business executive and attorney also called for measures to protect individuals from targeted digitally altered content.
Deep fakes (digitally-altered photos and videos that appear authentic but are fake) is the 'biggest issue’ coming out of artificial intelligence (AI), Microsoft President and vice-chair Brad Smith has said, with his remarks coming at a time when social media has seen a flurry of such AI-generated images, including the most recent one, of a ‘blast’ at the Pentagon.
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“We will have to address the issues around deep fakes. We will have to address, in particular, what we worry about most foreign cyber influence operations…the kind of activities already being carried out by the Russian government, the Chinese, the Iranians,” said Smith, according to Fudzilla.
The 65-year-old business executive, who is also an attorney, was speaking at an event in Washington, where he addressed the issue of how best to regulate AI.
Smith, meanwhile, also called for measures to protect individuals from targeted digitally-altered content.
“There must be a watermark system. Also, a new path should be found about finding a balance between deep fakes/misleading ads, and free expression,” he remarked.
Continuing, he added: “You embed what we call metadata, it's part of the file, if it's removed, we're able to detect it. If there's an altered version, we in effect, create a hash. Think of it like the fingerprint of something, and then we can look for that fingerprint across the internet.”
In recent days, several AI-generated images (not necessarily as an attempt to mislead) have made their way to social media, including those of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, former US President Donald Trump, Pope Francis, and more.
(With PTI inputs)
