Deepfakes – which until less than five years ago were considered a remote technology – have achieved accelerated tuning in the training algorithms to clone voices and images that result in audio and an almost ‘real’ portrait of a person. The rapid expansion of deepfakes in an electoral context threatens to accentuate misinformation in the media, social networks and even issues of identity theft.
This situation has begun to be reflected in the country. In previous days, a WhatsApp audio note from the current head of government of Mexico City, Martí Batres, was leaked in which he allegedly talks about a plan to prevent, at that time, Omar Harfuch from becoming the candidate for CDMX. The official has denied that the audio is real and has instead maintained that the voice in the WhatsApp note is the product of AI.
The widespread use of this tool within societies opens greater debates about the need to regulate this technology, especially in matters of intellectual property protection and human rights.
On November 2, 28 countries reached an international agreement that establishes an understanding on the opportunities and risks of AI, and the need for international collaboration. Among the nations that signed the alliance are the United States, Canada, Chile, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, as well as the European Union, among others.
Mexico, for its part, has created the National Artificial Intelligence Alliance (ANIA) to understand the implications and scope that the new technology will have on society and governance, through debates with industry, academia and society.
“Those of us who form the ANIA when asking ourselves where the regulation of AI should go is that legislators and governments around the world still do not have the answer and that is where we stand at this moment in a very general framework that advocates for now in ethics,” acknowledges Alejandra Lagunes.
Google, one of the technology companies that is currently developing its own Artificial Intelligence, has highlighted the need to create a regulatory framework based on ethics to avoid social violations. And the mass use of the tool brings with it social challenges but also for the democracies of all nations, which is why it has assured that for the presidential elections in Mexico as in the United States it will introduce a function called news watch to check if a news or video is fake.
“Human beings have given artificial intelligence systems this oracle capacity because practically everything that comes from there is taken as truth, without checking whether it is real or a lie and this implies a great risk,” said David Ruiz, leader of Google data analytics and artificial intelligence during its participation in the Canieti 2023 forum.
The challenges of AI are accentuated in societies where technological skills and knowledge are lacking, which is why experts have agreed on the need to bring new technologies closer to people of all ages.
“The development of technological skills today is necessary in our country so that all generations and the 50% of jobs that now exist and that are expected to be transformed, people do not have problems occupying them or that they are used by the same technologies “warns the senator.