During a speech in Washington on Thursday, Microsoft president Brad Smith said that “deepfakes” are the biggest risk of artificial intelligence, Reuters reported.
Deep fakes, images that are digitally manipulated to look extremely realistic, can be harmful in their potential to spread misinformation, Smith argues.
“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,” he said, per Reuters.
In April, Google CEO Sundar Pichai also called out deepfakes and their potential use for malicious intent, saying the videos “cause harm to society.”
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Smith also called for a licensing system for AI, with “obligations to protect security, physical security, cybersecurity, national security.”
Earlier this month, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI (which is backed by Microsoft), spoke before Congress about the crucial need for AI regulation and proposed a similar licensing move: Lawmakers would outline a series of safety standards that companies need to abide by to grant them a license, and then also have the power to revoke it should they not comply with the standards.
“My worst fear is we cause significant harm to the world,” Altman said at the hearing.
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