By Liezelle Soriano
MANILA – Information and Communications Technology Secretary John Ivan Uy stated on Monday (05 August 2024) that deepfakes and AI tools used to scam and deceive people have become a nationwide problem, posing a threat to the electoral process when exploited for political gain.
“Especially during elections, they can use them to malign or discredit certain people by attributing quotations or phrases that are extremely unpopular and making it appear that the person uttered those statements. This becomes even more destructive if released a few days before people cast their ballots, leaving no time for the real person to deny the statements,” he explained.
“So those are the things that we are seeing. [The] US elections are coming up in November, and we are seeing a proliferation of this even in the United States. It appears that even a first-world country like the United States is not able to completely address it, as issues still pop up here and there.”
Deepfake technology is used to make something appear real. It is often used for voice and video manipulation by replacing someone’s voice, video image, or photo over an existing image.
Uy noted that this is a global concern causing significant losses in various countries. He emphasized the need to address these problems immediately and called on legislators to enact laws against illicit online activities.
Uy also mentioned that the DICT is developing software and a platform to be incorporated into the existing government app to combat cybercrimes and misinformation.
ia/mnm
