A leading tech expert has called for the criminalisation of deepfakes, while urging of the issues regarding fast-developing Artificial Systems (AI).
Kevin Baragona, founder of AI systems website Deep AI, has worked as an engineer since 2010. He founded Deep AI to bring a technology called deep learning from the research world ‘into people’s hands.’
What is Artificial Intelligence?
Artificial Intelligence, more often known as AI, are computers that ‘think a little bit like humans,’ Mr Baragona said, noting that the more resources invested the better the systems will get over time.
‘With DeepAI and ChatGPT, we have computers that can reason and write and read similar to humans, and they do this by looking at all of our data on the internet,’ the American tech expert explained to Extra.ie.
Issues with Artificial Intelligence
Touching on the issues currently surrounding AI, Baragona noted that questions surrounding the legality of the data, as well as the biases that may surface regarding our data.
He said: ‘As AI is trained with our own data, it generally contains human biases, and we can’t ignore that.’
As well as the legality and biases, there is also a risk of AI taking people’s jobs over which was branded ‘startling’ by the DeepAI founder who was adamant of the importance of talking about the next steps with AI.
He explained: ‘We create AI that is smarter than humans at almost everything that we do, and that is probably the most scary prospect of all, and the most dangerous because we won’t be able to control it, if that happens.
‘AI can take over our world.’
Mr Baragona called for better education surrounding AI, and what the risks surrounding the technology are.
He also called for the regulation of the technology from governments across the globe, and called for the banning of ‘specific harms that AI can cause.’
Criminalisation of Deepfakes
Speaking to Extra.ie, Mr Baragona honed in on the issue surrounding deepfakes — the creation of a fake video or picture of someone.
Mr Baragona said: ‘Those should be criminalised, the act of using them. I think the government should enforce laws against specific actions with AI instead of a blanket ban of the technology, it’s the act of using them.
‘I think we need to be careful about banning the tools; I’m not in favour of banning the tools because it makes it almost impossible for scientists to do their job. We should not ban the tools; we should ban the harmful usage.’
Prompted further on his stance, Baragona explained that the technology behind language processing tool ChatGPT is ‘very similar’ to the systems which generate pictures and videos.
‘If you ban one you kinda ban the other — it’s all very similar.’
Specifically, Mr Baragona has slammed the creation of an image of a specific person without their content, noting it’s ‘not a good thing.’
Noting that DeepAI does not deploy those type of systems, Baragona noted that his company doesn’t think deepfakes are ‘ethical,’ adding that DeepAI doesn’t ‘support it at all.’
Going a step further, Mr Baragona noted that use of deepfakes, such as a website which clones a persons voice without permission could branch into fraud.
‘One of our politicians, Jerome Jay Powell of the Federal Reserve, was tricked into thinking he was talking to the Ukrainian president Zelenskyy when it was a deepfake and it got him to reveal all types of information,’ he explained.
‘I’m aware of a website that allows you to clone someones voice, without their permission.
Calling for more education, Baragona noted that ‘as much education as possible’ is needed, noting that AI is ‘probably the most important new technology of our lifetime.’
‘The more we educate people the better.’
In as little as ten years there will be computers ‘that are smarter than humans,’ according to Mr Baragona, who also believes ‘actual robots [could be] walking down the street’ soon.
‘It’s very hard to predict what happens next, other than we might lose control of our own society if we’re not very careful,’ he told Extra.ie
Positives of Artificial Intelligence
Despite the dangers surrounding AI at the moment, Baragona stressed that it is ‘an amazing technology that will invest things we need.’
‘It’s not all bad,’ he said, listing that it will help in a medicinal and artistic capacity.
‘There’s gonna be a lot of cool medical advancements that will come from AI — new medicines; new ways to communicate with disabled people. It’s going to be really good for the medical world.
‘AI has been used to understand how biology works; how proteins work, and solved a problem called protein folding, which was a problem that baffled scientists for 30 years.’
This development allowed experts to ‘start designing new medicines that targeted these proteins,’ something that Baragona said would never have happened without AI.
‘AI is able to process a lot more data than a human can — it’s the combination of the human and the computer coming together that produces the most valuable outcomes today,’ he shared.
His lasting words were to once again stress the importance of AI in the modern world, be it for better or worse.’
He said: ‘We’re rapidly entering a sci-fi era so pay attention.
