A month ago, a multinational company in Hong Kong became a victim of deepfake fraud worth more than 3 billion rupees. The fraud was done using deepfake technology (imitation that looks like reality) which is part of AI.
For this, the cybercriminals created a deepfake through AI using the audio and video of the fraudulent company's employees available on the Internet, one of whom was the Chief Financial Officer (CFO).
Then an email message is sent from the UK-based CFO to an employee of the finance department about confidential transactions. Employees are suspicious of this message. But after joining the video conference, the doubts of those employees are removed. Because the faces seen in the video conference were the CFO and other employees of the company.
After that, the employee transfers more than 3 billion 15 times. In fact, only the employee who transferred the money in the video conference was genuine, all the others were fake (made using deepfake technology). This is the biggest theft ever from Deepfake.
Some time ago, the audio of President Joe Biden advising the voters not to vote in the presidential primary election in New Hampshire went viral. But the audio was not produced by Biden but by AI.
In the next few days, elections will be held in about 60 countries around the world. Concerns that AI may be used to influence voters during elections are now widespread around the world. Some incidents affecting the voters have already happened.
Apart from this, deepfakes are also being used to blur the image of various popular people. Indian actress Rashmika Mandana, American singer Taylor Swift, former American President Donald Trump and others have also been victims of deepfakes.
These incidents have recently raised the voice of the need to regulate artificial intelligence (AI) technology around the world. Only on Wednesday, the European Union has passed the law regulating AI from the parliament. The European Union has introduced a law to regulate AI for the first time in the world.
America, China, India, Brazil, Israel, Italy, Japan, UAE and other countries have also advanced the process of regulating AI.
What is the preparation of Nepal?
For some time now, voices are being raised about regulating AI, a technology that has been discussed around the world and has also posed challenges. Various stakeholders have also been saying that regulation of AI is necessary. Government of Nepal has also advanced some process for this.
AI expert Prof. Dr. Suresh Manandhar said AI should be regulated. 'If any new medicine comes, it is also regulated. AI is no different. AI also needs rules,' he told ICT News, 'but how we regulate, that is the main thing.'
Before regulating AI, the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology has already advanced the process of preparing a concept paper on AI. The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology has also started discussing AI.
Netra Subedi, Spokesperson and Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, informed that the process of creating the concept paper of AI has been advanced. At first, how to use AI in Nepal is important. “Regulation is secondary,” Subedi said. We will forward the concept paper after taking the opinion of experts.'
The concept paper will cover various aspects of AI strategy, policy framework, field of application, mechanism etc. At the first stage, the ministry is preparing to bring the concept paper and then proceed with the regulation process.
Recently, as the incidence of AI abuse has started to increase, the voice that it needs to be regulated has gained more strength. Although AI is still in the development stage. However, its rapid development is raising challenges upon challenges.
Due to AI, challenges such as breach of privacy, spreading of false information, provoking social harmony and making people jobless have come before us. Manandhar believes that AI should help people's work rather than negatively affecting it.
At the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Aarti Prabhakar, Director of Science and Technology Policy of the US White House, said that AI is a powerful technology of the present time and its risks must be managed.
In an interview with the World Economic Forum, Andrew Ng, the founder of the AI education company Deep Learning.AI, expressed concern that regulation could hinder the development of AI.
With the buzz of AI regulation, can it really be regulated or not? That in itself is important. Both Future Foundation CEO Khalfan Belhoul told Radio Davos that AI cannot really be governed. 'You can rule the sub-effect or the area affected by AI,' he said, 'It is best to make policy by taking them as cases. But the challenge is to unify those policies, set best practices and set standards.'
AI is not a single field but its use has started in every field. Now this is just the beginning, in the future the use of AI is sure to be immense. Due to this, it seems that there will be many complications in the regulation of AI.
Technologies like AI have been developed for the ease and simplicity of people. But along with its use, remote use is also increasing. Subedi says that AI companies themselves should be more responsible than regulation to prevent misuse of AI.
That is why the theme of this year's Consumer Rights Day, celebrated on March 15, is 'Fair and Responsible AI for Consumers'.