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Debunking AI: The Emerging Threat of Deepfake Cybercrimes

 

Understanding AI and Deepfakes

In 1997, a Video Rewrite Program was published. It generated new videos of people mouthing words they didn't originally say by matching phonemes from audio tracks with mouth images from existing footage.[1] This marked the first recognized occurrence of a deepfake.

Deepfakes, which are artificial audio, photo, or video manipulations, are a significant concern due to their heavy reliance on machine learning, thereby establishing a strong link between AI and deepfakes. These manipulations can convincingly impersonate individuals, making it difficult to discern the fake from the real.

AI and Deepfakes Powered Cybercrimes

The resulting cybercrimes are huge and disturbing because AI-created deepfakes involve manipulating cyberinfrastructure through cyber means in cyberspace.

1. Phishing Scams

Phishing is the most common way of duping a person out of his money, and deepfakes have become increasingly unstoppable. Fraud in China used deepfake to impersonate a friend of the victim and duped the victim out of 4.3 million Yuan.[2]

According to the FBI's data[3]Business Email Compromises(BECs) made through deepfakes have resulted in staggering financial losses, amounting to $5.3 billion for approximately 24,000 enterprises worldwide.

2. Sextortion

Sextortion involves online coercing a person to provide a sexual photo or video of them and then using the same to get something done from that person. The FBI has reported a significant uptick in sextortion cases, where perpetrators use fake images or videos, commonly referred to as deepfakes, which are created from content that victims have shared on their social media profiles.[4] In 2023, a doctor from Nadiad, India, reported to the police after his video wherein he was shown in a compromising position with his client went viral; after investigation, it came to be known that the doctor's wife made the video to avenge herself.[5]

3. Cyber Extortion

In 2022, a Regina couple reported that they were almost duped of $9,400 after a voice call scam in which they were told that their grandson had been in an accident and had serious charges. The scam went serious when the grandparents were made to hear the voice of their grandson, which was created using deepfakes and AI.[6] This example furthers the threat of deepfakes. The grandparents said that there were many red flags, but the voice of their son, who was asking for help with love and hope, almost caused them to lose the money.

4. Cyber Defamation

The same can be seen to have happened during the 2020 US presidential elections, wherein altered videos of Nancy Pelosi stammering in front of a news conference hinting at being drunk were made through a deepfake and went viral.[7] Such instances hint at the dangers of democratic principles, wherein defamation of opposition through fake videos can pose a grave threat to public opinion during democratic elections.

In his book ‘Deepfakes[8]’Graham Meikle explains that such deepfakes land like a ‘dirty bomb’ and worsen the situation of many democracies globally.

5. Cyber Terrorism

AI-generated deepfakes pose a threat not only to individuals or properties but to the countries as a whole as well. In 2023, A deepfake image of an explosion near the Pentagon went viral.[9] Which disrupted the financial markets in the USA and became a caveat about how dangerous AI can be in leveraging cybercrimes against countries.

Challenges in Legal Frameworks

The ramifications present in India involve provisions of the IT Act[10], IPC[11], and some provisions of the Copyright Act[12], which are somewhat archaic for fighting AI-powered cybercrimes. These provisions were made to address very restricted crimes, yet a single deepfake has the potential to facilitate all kinds of cybercrimes in one instance. All the legal ramifications only take effect once the illegal content has been uploaded and a cybercrime committed; no preventive provisions are yet in place for these cybercrimes. International efforts have been made to regulate the threat of deepfakes, such as the recently introduced ‘The Deep Fakes Accountability Bill, 2023[13]’ in the US or the EU’s ‘Code of Practice on Disinformation[14],’ but given the unassailable power of deepfakes and AI, there is a long road ahead in fighting these formidable cybercrimes.

~ Purav Garg

B.Com LLB (H), UILS, Chandigarh

 ____________________________________________________________________

[1] Christoph Bregler, Michele Covell, Malcolm Slaney, Video Rewrite: Driving Visual Speech with Audio, ACM SIGGRAPH 97 (1997), https://www.researchgate.net/publication/220720338_Video_Rewrite_Driving_Visual_Speech_with_Audio.

[2] Reuters, Deepfake scam in China fans worries over AI-driven fraud, Reuters (May 22, 2023), https://www.reuters.com/technology/deepfake-scam-china-fans-worries-over-ai-driven-fraud-2023-05-22/.

[3] FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center, Public Service Announcement, (May 4, 2017), https://www.ic3.gov/Media/Y2017/PSA170504.

[4] FBI Internet Crime Complaint Centre, Public Service Announcement (June 5, 2023), https://www.ic3.gov/Media/Y2023/PSA230605.

[5] Ashish Chauhan, Deepfakes strike deep in Gujarat too, Times of India (Ahmedabad edition) (November 11, 2023), https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ahmedabad/deepfakes-strike-deep-in-gujarat-too/articleshow/105136316.cms.

[6] Jennifer Ackerman, Regina couple says possible AI voice scam nearly cost them $9,400, Leader-Post (March 30, 2022), https://leaderpost.com/news/local-news/regina-couple-says-possible-ai-voice-scam-nearly-cost-them-9400.

[7] CBS Mornings, "Doctored" Nancy Pelosi video highlights the threat of "deepfake" tech, CBS News (May 25, 2019), https://www.cbsnews.com/news/doctored-nancy-pelosi-video-highlights-threat-of-deepfake-tech-2019-05-25/.

[8] Graham Meikle, Deepfakes, Polity Press, 1st edition, 2022.

[9] Brian Bushard, Fake Image Of Explosion Near Pentagon Went Viral Even Though It Never Happened, Forbes (May 22, 2023), https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianbushard/2023/05/22/fake-image-of-explosion-near-pentagon-went-viral-even-though-it-never-happened/?sh=fcf1b9d49a57.

[10] Information Technology Act, 2000, No. 21, Acts of Parliament, 2000 (India).

[11] Indian Penal Code, Act No. 45 of 1860, Acts of Parliament, 1860 (India).

[12] Copyright Act, 1957, No. 14, Acts of Parliament, 1957 (India).

[13] H.R. 5586, 118th Cong. (2023)

[14] European Commission, Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology, 2022 Strengthened Code of Practice on Disinformation, COM (2022).

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