India can start the process of legislating artificial intelligence (AI) regulations after the conclusion of the Lok sabha general elections, as per a report, Union Minister of Electronics & Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw said.
India has been planning to create some sort of regulatory framework to manage many issues that have popup with the rise of technology.
This news comes just a month after the Indian government issued an advisory asking technology companies to seek “explicit permission” before deploying under-testing or unreliable AI models in India.
That advisory was later withdrawn, and technology companies were ask to include visible labels containing “possible inherent fallibility or unreliability of the output generated”.
Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw explain the government’s plans to create a larger regulatory structure for AI.
Ashwini Vaishnaw said :
“One thought is to form a self-regulatory body. But we don’t think that would be enough. We think that this regulation should be done by legislative method. We have already consulted the industry. After elections, we will launch a formal consultation process and move towards legislation.”
He also said that the regulations would be “very balanced” and ensure that the creativity of the innovators was not stifled.
But, highlighting copyright, financial, and commercial implications, Union Minister said that regulations were necessary.
In 2023, since AI became mainstream, incidents of deepfakes have seen a marked rise.
For the unversed, deepfakes are any synthetic media, images, videos, or audio, that are digitally manipulate or enhance to give the likeness of a living personality, likely to spread misinformation.
One of the earliest cases involve actor Rashmika Mandanna, whose digitally alter video was post online, start a debate on public safety.
I feel really hurt to share this and have to talk about the deepfake video of me being spread online.
— Rashmika Mandanna (@iamRashmika) November 6, 2023
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.…
Some other celebrities such as actor Alia Bhatt, Katrina Kaif, and Nora Fatehi have also are the victim of deepfakes.
Ashwini Vaishnaw also highlight the challenge of preserving intellectual property, an issue which has already become widespread in the US.
In India, the Digital News Publishers Association (DNPA) sent a letter to the government seeking copyright protection against AI models, as per report.
All these challenges are expect to be address through the planned AI regulation.
