Microsoft Executive Says Deep Fakes Are AI’s Biggest Concern

(CTN News) – Brad Smith, Microsoft’s president, stated on Thursday that his most significant concern regarding artificial intelligence was deep fakes, which look realistic but contain false information.

The speaker insisted that steps be taken to ensure that people know when a photo or video is real and when it has been generated by artificial intelligence, potentially for nefarious purposes, in a speech in Washington that addressed how to best regulate artificial intelligence. With the release of Microsoft ChatGPT, the issue went from wonky to widespread.

There will be a need to address issues related to deep fakes. The kind of activities that are already taking place by the Russian government, the Chinese government, the Iranians, will have to be addressed in particular, he said, as they are the kind of activities we are concerned about most foreign cyber influence operations.

Using artificial intelligence, we need to take steps to protect legitimate content from being altered in order to deceive or defraud people.”

Furthermore, Smith called for licensing of the most critical forms of Artificial Intelligence, with an obligation to protect security, physical security, Microsoft cybersecurity, and national security.

It will be necessary to develop a new generation of export controls, at least the evolution of the current export controls, in order to ensure that these models are not stolen or used in ways that would violate the country’s export control requirements.

On November 3, 2021, Microsoft President Brad Smith spoke with Reuters at the Web Summit, the largest technology conference in Europe. Reuters photo by Pedro Nunes

As companies have raced to bring increasingly versatile AI to market, lawmakers in Washington have struggled to pass laws to control AI.

In his first appearance before Congress, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, the startup behind ChatGPT, told a Senate committee that artificial intelligence interference in elections is a “significant area of concern” that requires regulation.

In addition, Altman, whose OpenAI is backed by Microsoft, called for international cooperation on artificial intelligence and incentives for safe use.

The speaker also emphasized, in a blog post published on Thursday, that people must be held accountable for any problems caused by artificial intelligence. He also urged lawmakers to ensure that safety brakes are put in place on artificial intelligence that is used to control the electric grid, water supply and other critical infrastructure to ensure human control remains intact.

According to him, Microsoft AI developers should implement a “Know Your Customer”-style system to monitor how their technology is being used and to inform the public of what content artificial intelligence is creating so that they can identify fake content.

Several proposals currently under consideration on Capitol Hill would focus on artificial intelligence that may pose a risk to people’s lives and livelihoods, such as in medicine and finance.

It is also being argued that rules should be instituted to ensure that AI is not used to discriminate or violate civil rights.

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