DEEPFAKES-CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER

FROM BOLLYWOOD CELEBRITIES TO POLITICIANS, NO ONE IS IMMUNE TO THE MENACE OF DEEPFAKES. IN THE WRONG HANDS, THEY ALSO HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO FOMENT UNREST. HOW DO WE GUARD OURSELVES AGAINST IT?

- AJAY SUKUMARAN, Suhani Singh and Pradip R. Sagar

Before you hit the forward button on your smartphone app next time, pause for a minute. That irresistibly funny image or suggestive video you are sharing may look convincingly real but could easily be a deepfake. Like the one of actress Rashmika Mandanna featured on the previous spread. You see her in a black outfit stepping into an elevator. What it actually is her face swap on a video of British-Indian influencer Zara Patel, posted only a few weeks earlier. Explanation is pointless, the video has already gone viral. "Something like this is honestly extremely scary not only for me but also for each one of us who today is vulnerable to so much harm because of how technology is being misused," the actress said. "...if this happened to me in school or college, I genuinely can't imagine how I could tackle this. We need to address this as a community and with urgency before more of us are affected by such identity theft."

By this time, it wasn't just Rashmika who had fallen victim to the menace. Fake images of actresses Katrina Kaif and Kajol emerged in quick succession-a pointer to the disturbing fact of deepfakes proliferating. "Yes, this is a strong case for legal," is how Big B reacted on November 5 on X (formerly Twitter), after a fact-checker debunked the Rashmika clip as fake. Just days later, however, a video clip from Amitabh Bachchan's own quiz show, Kaun Banega Crorepati, pushing poll propaganda in Madhya Pradesh started doing the rounds. Manipulated with a voice dub, it became one of the many fakes circulating this election season.

THE ORIGIN OF DEEPFAKES