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A recent study revealed that the most common misuse of artificial intelligence is the creation of deepfakes of politicians and celebrities, rather than AI-assisted cyber attacks.

What Happened: The study, conducted by DeepMind, a division of Googles parent company Alphabet Inc GOOGGOOGL, found that the most prevalent misuse of generative AI tools is the creation of realistic yet fake images, videos, and audio of public figures, reported Financial Times on Tuesday.

This misuse is almost twice as common as the next one in the list, which involves the falsifying of information using text-based tools.

The study also revealed that the primary goal of actors misusing generative AI is to shape or influence public opinion, accounting for 27% of uses. This has raised concerns about the potential influence of deepfakes on global elections.

Despite efforts by social media platforms to label or remove such content, there is widespread concern that audiences may not recognize these deepfakes as fake, potentially swaying voters.

Ardi Janjeva from The Alan Turing Institute emphasized the long-term risks to democracy posed by AI-generated misinformation. The study is DeepMinds first attempt to quantify the risks associated with generative AI tools, which are increasingly used by major tech companies.

Lead author of the study and researcher at Google DeepMind Nahema Marchal noted that while there is concern over sophisticated cyber attacks, the more common misuse involves deepfakes that often go unnoticed. The research analyzed around 200 incidents of misuse from social media and online reports between January 2023 and March 2024.

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Why It Matters: The proliferation of deepfakes has been a growing concern globally. Just a day before this study was published, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey warned about a future where distinguishing between reality and fabrication will become increasingly challenging due to the proliferation of deepfakes.

Earlier in May, cybersecurity experts warned of escalating threats due to the rise of deepfake scams, which have caused companies worldwide to lose millions of dollars. The situation could worsen as AI technology continues to evolve.

These concerns were further underscored in April when the UK government announced plans to criminalize the creation of sexually explicit deepfake images, attributing the rise of deepfake images and videos to rapid advancements in artificial intelligence.

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Photo by Sander Sammy on Unsplash

This story was generated using Benzinga Neuro and edited by Kaustubh Bagalkote

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Google DeepMind Study Reveals That Deepfakes Of Politicians And Celebrities More Common Than AI-Assisted ... - Benzinga