US Congress Unites Against AI Deepfake: Watermarking To The Rescue

A bipartisan group of US senators has proposed the Content Origin Protection and Integrity from Edited and Deepfake Media Act (COPIED), in a historic action to counteract the growing use of artificial intelligence (AI) deepfakes.

Under direction by Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), and Martin Heinrich (D-NM), this proposed law seeks to create consistent approaches for watermarking AI-generated material, therefore providing a strong defense of digital authenticity.

Deepfake: A Digital Age Push For Transparency

By requiring that artificial intelligence service providers—including behemoths like OpenAI—embed machine-readable origin information into the material they produce, the COPIED Act is set to transform the cryptocurrency and digital terrains.

This measure, according to Cantwell, is essential for “much-needed transparency” and ensures that creators retain ownership of their work even as artificial intelligence advances to dominate the industry.

Like many others, Blackburn has voiced the critical need to protect the public from the dangers posed by deepfakes.

“Artificial intelligence has given bad actors the power to make deepfakes of every individual, even those in the creative community, to copy their image without their knowledge and profit off of counterfeit content,” Blackburn said. The proposed legislation is meant to discourage this immoral behavior by making it harder for such material to be exploited without discovery.

FTC To Implement Strict Guidelines

The enforcement mechanism of the COPIED Act is fundamental and puts the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in charge. Like all infractions under the FTC Act, the FTC will be in charge of supervising compliance and handling violations as unfair or deceptive activities.

The passage of this regulation comes at a time when discussions regarding the moral implications of artificial intelligence are becoming increasingly widespread.

A clear indication of how concerned people are about the capability of the technology to collect enormous quantities of data from the internet is the fact that Microsoft resigned from its position on the OpenAI board.

Industry Reaction And Future Vision

Although the digital and creative sectors have shown conflicting opinions on the COPIED Act, many stakeholders see the need of such rules.

Emphasizing the importance of thorough preventative measures, Michael Marcotte, the founder of the National Cybersecurity Center (NCC), has been a strong critic of internet corporations such as Google for not acting enough to stop deepfake frauds.

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