India Enacts Strict Laws on AI Content and Deepfakes Prior to Elections
Amidst the upcoming seven-phase elections starting April 19, Microsoft has cautioned India regarding China's intentions to leverage AI-generated content to advance its interests. Responding to this warning, the Indian government has issued a stern advisory to global digital companies, urging them to address potential threats posed by artificial intelligence during the electoral process.
With major elections taking place across the world this year, majorly in India, the US and South Korea, “We assess that China will, at a minimum, create and amplify AI-generated content to benefit its interests", according to Clint Watts, General Manager, Microsoft Threat Analysis Center.
According to Tenable, an exposure management company, the dissemination of misinformation via AI-generated fake and deepfake content poses a significant threat to the forthcoming elections. Satnam Narang, Senior Staff Research Engineer, Tenable, said, "The biggest threats to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections are misinformation and disinformation as part of influence operations conducted by malicious actors against the electorate”.
Expressing concern over the potential misuse of AI, the Indian government announced last month that social media intermediaries must prevent any bias, discrimination, or compromise on the integrity of the electoral process. In a recent advisory from the Ministry of Information Technology, digital platforms are instructed to assume full responsibility and cannot evade accountability by citing that AI models are still in the testing phase.
"It is reiterated that non-compliance to the provisions of the IT Act and/or IT Rules would result in potential penal consequences to the intermediaries or platforms or its users when identified, including but not limited to prosecution under IT Act and several other statutes of the criminal code", according to the advisory.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a conversation with Microsoft Co-founder Bill Gates late last month, also expressed concerns about deepfakes in a democratic country like ours. "I have engaged with leading minds on AI and its risks. I suggested that we should start with clear watermarks on AI-generated content to prevent misinformation. Proper sources of AI-generated content should also be mentioned," PM Modi emphasized. "Someone can even misuse my voice to deceive people and such a deepfake can trigger widespread uproar. We need to think about creating robust dos and don'ts on deepfakes", the Prime Minister told the billionaire philanthropist.
