Deepfake rules gather steam

The government has just published updated draft amendments to the IT Rules of 2021, with several measures to check deepfakes. The challenge, as ever, lies in implementation

- BHAVINI MISHRA & AASHISH ARYAN

A few months ago, Raanjhanaa, a 2013 romance set against the backdrop of student politics, landed in cinemas again. But there was a big difference: In the original, the hero -Kundan, played by Dhanush-dies. In this version, Kundan miraculously opens his eyes as his love interest, Zoya, played by Sonam Kapoor, sits by his hospital bed.

The new happy ending was cooked up entirely by artificial intelligence (AI).

Though the re-released version of the film barely moved the box office, it stirred a controversy-the new climax wasn't imagined by either director Anand L Rai or writer Himanshu Sharma.

The use of AI to create an audio or video clip that appears "reasonably authentic" raises larger questions about the potential of the technology to reimagine movies, plots, books, movie characters, and music.

The anxiety is not unfounded: The other side of 'reimagine' is misuse. You could put words in the mouth of a political leader, for instance.

Over the last 12-18 months, the audio and video generation capabilities of general pur pose large language models (LLMS) and special purpose small language models (SLMS) the difference is in size and ease of deployability-have increased manifold.

Such clips, loosely classified as deepfakes under the broad umbrella of "synthetically generated content", have triggered action from courts as well as the government.

Several high courts across the country have passed omnibus orders protecting the rights of a number of actors. Though courts recognised the right to identity as far back as 1994, the threat posed by AI and deepfakes has made these protections far more urgent.

"The rise of AI has necessitated the courts' intervention to protect the identity and publicity rights of celebrities in order to prevent misuse of their personas in ads, on digital platforms, and in AI-generated content," said Niharika Karanjawala Misra, principal associate at law firm Karanjawala & Co.