Unmasking Threat: How India can chart strategies to combat deepfake video challenges?

livemint.com:

deepfake technology becoming a rising threat in audio, video, and photo format. The recent incident of a deepfake video involving popular actor Rashmika Mandanna has shocked viewers. It has not only stirred the Bollywood industry but also the government to take strict action against this growing menace.

The Delhi Police has also registered an FIR in connection with the deepfake video of Rashmika Mandana. “Deepfakes are trained with many pictures and videos to learn facial features. This program, a neural network, has two functions: creating face-swapped videos and detecting such modifications," Dr.

Sunil K Shekhawat, CEO, SanchiConnect- a company that works with many startups in the deep tech sector had earlier told LiveMint. He said, “Known as Generative Adversarial Networks, or GANs, these networks improve through a tug-of-war where one party tries to fool the other. As the system gets better, it becomes more challenging to discern if a video is genuine or altered by this intelligent software." Experts suggested that deepfakes can be spotted through unnatural eye movements and facial expressions, inconsistencies in physical appearance, and audiovisual discrepancies.

Detection, forensic algorithms, audit processes, and the talent needed to mitigate this risk are some of the areas that need to be strengthened, Pradeep Yadlapati, Senior Vice President, India Country Head & APAC SBU Head for Innova Solutions told LiveMint. According to Yadlapati, the implementation of stricter verification processes such as multi-factor authentication, zero-trust, and investing in tools to identify deepfakes, organizations can minimize the risk to legitimate network users. In addition, stricter guidelines towards the use of AI (Gen AI),