AI and deepfakes are blurring the line between reality and fiction. Many might believe they can identify what’s AI generated and what’s human effort, but even the keenest eyes can be fooled by the latest models such as OpenAI’s Sora or Google Veo.

Even Indian startups such as Invideo have made AI videos easily accessible for individuals and businesses around the world.

With rapidly growing adoption, comes the risk of hoaxes, scams and reputational damage to individuals.

It’s this blur between what’s real and what’s AI generated that India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) wants to fix. On October 22, the IT ministry proposed amendments to the Information Technology Rules, 2021, calling for complete disclosure of AI generated or synthesised content

Digital media platforms have to label such content as “synthetically generated information”. Social media giants and Indian startups have up to November 6 to review the advisory and send in their feedback.

Under the proposed changes, platforms must “prominently mark” (at least 10% of the visual area or the initial audio) content as AI generated or synthesised. Large social media intermediaries like YouTube and Meta would need to adopt technical systems to detect and label such content automatically.

While this helps users to distinguish the real from the fake, some are worried that the ambit could stretch to every piece of content on the internet.

“It’s a good step to bring accountability to AI-generated content, but there must be some clarity on what is being labelled, why it’s being labelled and on what users can or cannot report. If every piece of AI-generated content is labelled or reported, it will harm the user experience and stifle creativity,” said Divya Agarwal, founder social media and growth marketing agency Bingelabs.

High Profile Deepfakes Spark Debate

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