Experts Collaborate To Combat Deepfakes

The online symposium on Deepfakes and Trust was jointly hosted by BITS Law School Mumbai under BITS Pilani (India), USC Gould School of Law (United States), University of Sussex Business School and School of Law, Politics and Sociology at the University of Sussex (UK) 

The symposium aimed to foster a comprehensive dialogue across various disciplines to address the challenges posed by AI-generated misinformation and the unethical use of technology. By bringing together experts from law, public policy, economics, business, technology, sociology, politics and governance, the symposium initiated a much-needed conservation to understand the issues and debate strategies to combat the risks associated with deepfakes. 

The interdisciplinary approach is essential for a threat that respects no boundaries, neither between domains of study, nor jurisdictions. 

Collaborative research and shared insights can lead to more effective policies, legal frameworks and technological solutions to detect, prevent and mitigate the harmful effects of deepfakes.

This symposium was a pivotal step in establishing a global research agenda that explores the current state of the response to deepfake technology and also anticipates future developments to help safeguard democratic values and individual rights.

Some of the discussed key issues are: 

1. Responsibility of content networks like Meta, X, YouTube vs AI tech platforms – who is to be regulated and how. How to ensure transparency for labeling deep fakes.
   
   
2. Intellectual property issues around using unauthorised visual/audio of artists.
   
   
3. The need for additional laws vs sufficiency of existing laws.
   
   
4. Possibilities for harmonisation of laws across countries.
   
   
5. How to handle bad actors located in adversarial states/jurisdictions.