More Than 300 International Experts Release Open Letter Demanding Government Leaders Take Immediate Action to Combat Deepfake Threats

BERKELEY, Calif., Feb. 21, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — More than 300 leading international experts in technology, artificial intelligence, digital ethics, and child safety, as well as entertainment professionals and academics today issued an open letter urging governments, policymakers, and political leaders to combat the growing threat of harmful deepfake content, which often involves sexual imagery, fraud, or political disinformation. Signatories on the letter include prominent thought leaders such as Andrew Yang, Joy Buolamwini, Stuart Russell, Sarah Gardner, Gary Marcus, Frances Haugen, Steven Pinker, Sneha Revanur, Chris Weitz, Marietje Schaake, and Oren Etzioni.

The full letter, its signatories, and information about how to sign can be found HERE.

Current laws do not adequately target and limit deepfake production and dissemination, and existing requirements on creators are ineffective. The letter, titled “Disrupting the Deepfake Supply Chain,” is supportive of ongoing legislative efforts to regulate deepfakes, and includes key recommendations to help governments design and implement comprehensive laws and regulations to hold the entire deepfake supply chain accountable, such as:

Fully Criminalizing Deepfake Child Pornography, even in cases where only fictional children are depicted.Establishing Criminal Penalties for any individual who knowingly creates or facilitates the spread of harmful deepfakes.Requiring software developers and distributors to prevent their audio and visual products from creating harmful deepfakes, and requiring they be held liable if their preventive measures are too easily circumvented.

“Deepfakes are a huge threat to human society and are already causing growing harm to individuals, communities, and the functioning of democracy,” said Andrew Critch, AI Researcher at UC Berkeley in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and lead author on the letter. “We need immediate action to combat the proliferation of deepfakes, and my colleagues and I created this letter as a way for people around the world to show their support for law-making efforts to stop deepfakes.”

“The need for biometric rights becomes ever more apparent as we see how easily your likeness can be taken and transformed for nefarious uses,” said Dr. Joy Buolamwini, Founder of the Algorithmic Justice League and author of ‘Unmasking AI.’ “We also see that while no one is immune to algorithmic abuse, those already marginalized in society shoulder an even larger burden. 98% of nonconsensual deepfakes are of women and girls. That is why it is up to all of us to speak out against harmful uses of AI. If we remain silent, an AI backlash will result in pushback against beneficial applications of this technology. We do not have to accept digital humiliation as the tax for innovation. Criminalizing deepfake child pornography is the least we can do to protect the dignity of children now and for generations to come. Deterrents make a difference. There must be high consequences for egregious abuses of AI. We must also criminalize nonconsensual deepfake pornography that impacts people of all ages.”

“It’s increasingly clear that anyone, anywhere could be the target of harmful deep fakes—including our children,” said Sarah Gardner, Chief Executive Officer of the Heat Initiative. “Lawmakers work for us, and they have a moral imperative to protect our kids by acting quickly to hold accountable the platforms and bad actors that are allowing the proliferation of child sexual abuse material.”

Other organizations who assisted in preparing or promoting the letter include the Machine Intelligence and Normative Theory Lab, the Center for AI Safety, and OpenLetter.net, as well as several organizations associated with bandeepfakes.org who promoted the letter through email campaigns, including the Center for Human-Compatible AI, the Future of Life Institute, and Control/AI.

The letter also encourages device manufacturers, software developers, and media companies to work together to popularize content authentication methods, such as the implementation of tamper-proof digital seals on authentic media using cryptographic signature techniques similar to website certificates and login credentials.

Deepfakes — AI-generated synthetic media that mimic real human voices, images, and videos, in ways that a reasonable person would mistake as real — pose a significant, escalating risk to individuals, businesses, and democratic processes worldwide as AI platforms have become more powerful and accessible. From 2019 to 2023, there was a 400 percent increase in deepfake creation, with deepfake pornography alone comprising 98 percent of all deepfake videos online, almost all of them targeting women.

Last week, a bipartisan coalition of UK politicians emerged campaigning against deepfakes and calling for similar measures. Also recently, deepfake pornography of Taylor Swift went viral on social media; deepfake pornography of female students circulated at a high school in New Jersey; and deepfake robocalls of President Biden were made discouraging New Hampshire residents from voting.

For media inquiries or to schedule interviews, please contact Roy Loewenstein at 410-926-5110 or [email protected].

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SOURCE OpenLetter.net