Microsoft Chief Brad Smith Raises Alarm on Deep Fakes

Brad Smith, the Chairman of Microsoft says the biggest AI concern that poses a threat to society is the increased use of deepfakes. He significantly urged for preventive measures to be taken on the issue.

Amidst the growing concerns regarding the threats of AI on society and human existence, here comes Microsoft’s Chairman, Brad Smith’s statements wherein he expressed his biggest concerns regarding the AI-generated fake images and videos. He highlighted the issue with deep fakes depicting how there’s a need to take critical measures to combat the issue.

During a speech in Washington regarding the regulation of AI systems, Brad Smith insisted on steps to be taken which will help people quickly identify if an image or video is real or has been generated through AI.

He explained further,“We’re going have to address the issues around deep fakes. We’re going to have to address in particular what we worry about most foreign cyber influence operations, the kinds of activities that are already taking place by the Russian government, the Chinese, and the Iranians. We need to take steps to protect against the alteration of legitimate content with an intent to deceive or defraud people through the use of AI.”

As per him, such AI-generated content can be purely used for nefarious purposes and to protect from such harmful activities, there’s a need to instate serious regulations on AI. Brad also reinforced that there is a need for licensing for the essential AI systems with “obligations to protect the security, physical security, cybersecurity, national security.”

During the speech, he also spoke on the need for the evolution of current export controls to protect the models from being stolen or misused for purposes that could be violating the country’s export control requirements.

Smith also suggested that developers building powerful AI could follow a “Know Your Customer” type approach. The “Know Your Customer” style system can help developers to monitor how their technology is being consumed. It can also help the users to inform them about the content that has been created by AI. This will eventually help the public to differentiate between real and fake content as per Brad Smith.

Microsoft’s Chairman also debated during his speech stating that the accountability for the problems caused by AI should be on the humans. He also insisted that lawmakers put the necessary safety brakes on the use of AI to control critical infrastructure like electric grids, water supplies, etc.