"Deepfakes are tools of Deception and Distrust in the Digital Era posing a major threat to our digital integrity, blurring the line between reality and illusion, and challenging our ability to discern truth in an age of sophisticated deception." The simulation of human intelligence in machines have bestowed machines with the cognitive power to think, learn and make decisions autonomously making them artificially intelligent with increased efficiency and performance.
The chief components of AI namely, "Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing & Deep Learning", have become the source key to unlock futuristic technological developments holding the potential to automate and streamline complex tasks with unmatched proficiency and skill. The Deepfakes awash or inundate the society serving as an emergent threat in spreading misinformation resulting in distrust and dilemma among people.
Deepfakes are synthetic media that are generated using AI (deep learning), the images and videos produced as a result look remarkably realistic, often making it challenging to distinguish them from genuine content. Due to the ground breaking capabilities of the deepfake technology, it has become a preferred technology for the criminals to manipulate and misuse the same. The rise in the use of deepfakes for deception has caused profound implications on society, it is popularly used as a means to spread fake news, influence elections/political matters of the country, create pornographic content and fabricate convincingly fake evidence. According to a survey released by a leading cybersecurity firm McAfee, over 75% of Indians who are active online have come across deepfake content in the past year (2023). Additionally, the survey revealed that at least 38% of these respondents have encountered a deepfake scam during the same period.
Advanced AI models that are employed for creating the deepfake content has complicated forensic investigations making it taxing for the experts to detect such content. With the ever-evolving technology the methods involved in generation of Deepfakes are becoming more sophisticated such that the existing detection techniques that rely on various visual and scientific anomalies have become unsuccessful for detection. Many criminals have also targeted the said technology for impersonating notable individuals to commit scams and hoaxes.
However, existing laws can be applied to address the misuse of this technology, such as those related to copyright infringement, defamation, and cyber-crimes. Deepfake technology has also made it difficult for the experts in establishing and verifying the veracity of the original source of the media. The integrity of such evidences remains a huge question, overall affecting its admissibility in the court of law. The forensic experts have to conduct thorough research to scour such evidences, as contemporary tools and literature are limited regarding the same. The underlying technology that is involved in its generation is becoming advanced day by day, which has created a significant gap in scientific techniques available and detection techniques. Collaboration between technologists, law enforcement, and policymakers can serve incremental to address the deepfake threat.