Deepfakes

Meta cautiously reintroduces facial recognition, testing it on 50,000 celebrities to combat "celeb-bait" scams and reduce deepfake ads. But is this enough to stop compromised accounts, or is more action required?

Hong Kong police dismantled a fraud syndicate that used deepfake technology to scam individuals out of approximately HK$360 million (around $46 million) through romance scams. A total of 27 suspects were arrested, including five believed to have ties to organised crime, highlighting the growing threat of sophisticated online scams.

The Liberal Party of Australia has launched the country's first fully AI-generated political advertisement, featuring a deepfake of ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr, ahead of the 2024 federal election. This raises concerns about the implications of AI in politics, prompting calls for urgent regulation to protect the electoral process.

A UN report reveals that criminal networks in Southeast Asia use Telegram for large-scale illicit activities, such as trading hacked data and cybercrime tools. This follows scrutiny of Telegram’s founder, Pavel Durov, over the platform’s role in these activities. Can this popular messaging platform catch a break?

Character.AI faces backlash for using the likeness of a murdered teenage victim in a video game without her family's consent. The victim's father and uncle condemned the company, prompting the chatbot's removal and the creator's account suspension. This raises concerns about ethical oversight in AI development.

Telegram has committed to a zero-tolerance policy for deepfake pornography and illegal content in South Korea after concerns about manipulated images of women. This partnership with the Korea Communications Standards Commission aims to quickly remove harmful material and protect victims, as over 800 individuals have already been affected this year.

The Korea National Police Agency has conducted 515 undercover investigations into illegal deepfake pornography since September 2021, leading to the arrest of 1,415 individuals, including teenagers involved in distributing such content. In response to rising digital sex crimes, authorities have established a task force to address deepfake pornography and are evaluating Telegram's role in facilitating these offenses.

NO FAKES Act presents a bipartisan, unified effort to protect individuals from unauthorised deepfakes and AI-generated content, while balancing innovation with robust ethical safeguards.

Apple’s unveiling of the new iPhone16 models was disrupted by deepfakes of CEO Tim Cook promoting a cryptocurrency scam. Alarmingly, YouTube's search algorithm prioritised this fraudulent stream, highlighting concerns about the platform's user protection.

With deepfakes rising in generative AI, YouTube plans to introduce two tools to protect creators' intellectual property. While the details of these tools are promising, the platform has yet to disclose their official release dates.