Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed concern over the growing threat of deepfake videos and artificial intelligence during his speech at the Diwali Milan program held at the BJP Headquarters.
PM Modi mentioned coming across a video where he was portrayed singing a Garba song, stating, “I even saw a video of me singing ‘Garba,’ and even when I saw it, I was amused at how convincing it was. However, in reality, I never got the chance to do Garba after school. In school, I was very good at playing Garba, but after that, I never got the chance. But AI made such videos possible, and people who love me also started forwarding it.”
Prime Minister Modi was talking about the video that recently went viral on social media portraying him dancing to Garba. However, in reality, it was another person who looked like PM Modi. The video showed a resemblance to PM Modi at such a level that even some BJP leaders shared the video on social media platforms.
Expressing concern, PM Modi said, “There is a challenge arising because of Artificial Intelligence and deepfake. A significant section of our country has no parallel option for verification and authentication. People often end up believing in deepfakes, and this will pose a big challenge. If challenges occur due to this issue, there is a distance which the government has to cross before taking action; however, the media is not bound by distance. So, we need to educate people through our programs about Artificial Intelligence and deepfakes, how they work, what they can do, the challenges they can bring, and whatever can be deduced from them.”