Lok Sabha elections: AI deepfakes pose challenges to the integrity of electoral process. How to identify fake videos?

livemint.com:

artificial intelligence and deepfake technology to influence the electorate and mislead the public. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a recent conversation with Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates, highlighted the dangers of deepfake videos, saying important measures should be taken while using AI in the tech era.

“They can use my voice and it can deceive people initially," he stressed on the need for global do's and don'ts to use this technology. “During election season, the development of AI technologies such as deepfake videos, and voice cloning pose complex challenges to the integrity of the electoral process," Mohan Subrahmanya, Country Leader, Insight - India told LiveMint. Hence, the government along with cybersecurity experts and technology providers should work together to protect democratic institutions from such potential AI threats, he said.

Pawan Prabhat, cofounder of ShortHills AI believes that the targeted deep fakes of political leaders are more difficult to identify as true or false and can significantly influence public perception, potentially impacting the outcome of upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Subrahmanya said that regular security testing, sophisticated detection technology, and robust public education initiatives with transparency guidelines and international cooperation will help distinguish authentic content from deepfakes and prevent political leaders from becoming victims of digital fraud.

Citing examples of OpenAI and Meta, he said companies in the United States have included watermarks for AI-generated photos to facilitate identification while the University of Maryland use QR codes to verify legitimate live recordings. Prabhat also suggested several standard ways to determine whether a video is