As China grapples with the aftermath of Typhoon Noel over the weekend, authorities have come to a painful realization – they will have to fight not only natural disasters but also deepfake AI, writes the BBC.
After the severe storms and floods of recent months, a flood of fake videos has been circulating on social media – including videos of flooding in places where it did not occur, bodies floating in the water and fake videos of rescue operations. In several regions, the spread of fake videos has caused local residents to panic-buy essential goods. Other videos have been used to profit from real incidents. Flooding in a city in southern China allowed hundreds of snakes to escape from a farm. Then, fake images of crocodiles swimming in a river began to spread.
In situations that are already complex and require evacuations, authorities are keen to avoid creating further panic. Now, officials are beginning to fear that artificial intelligence tools, in which the government has invested millions of dollars, are becoming an easily accessible weapon to spread panic and fear among the public. Huang Zhihua, deputy head of the Zhejiang Police’s Online Safety Department, said that
content creators deliberately use tragic and exaggerated news to attract more views,
and often deliberately use fakes and exaggerate the incident.
There have been arrests in recent weeks, and penalties for creating fake content have ranged from detention to fines. However, experts warn that an unprecedented disinformation crisis may lie ahead. In an article published in the Communist Party newspaper, Professor Chen Bin argues that the increasing availability of artificial intelligence is allowing people without any technical skills to mass-produce fake images, videos and articles that look absolutely real and believable.
Professor Gao Fuping of East China University of Political Science and Law told the BBC that those who create and spread fake content have a variety of motivations: from those who are simply having fun and creating amusing content without thinking about the consequences, to those who profit from false information, and those who want to deliberately sow panic and cause chaos.
He added that some users believe that the internet is completely anonymous and that they cannot be tracked. There have been calls for all content created by artificial intelligence to be clearly labelled, but that the labelling can be removed when other users download the video and repost it.
Meanwhile, the Chinese government has been fully engaged in the development of artificial intelligence
to become a technological superpower. In 2017, Beijing announced that artificial intelligence would become the leading engine of the country’s development. Vast sums of money are being invested in the development of artificial intelligence, increasingly intensifying internal competition. The state-controlled news agency Xinhua reported that there are now more than 6,000 artificial intelligence companies operating in the country.
Professor Shu Xiaoke of Beijing Normal University believes that China needs to build a reliable information infrastructure that could include early warning systems and disaster reporting websites that can be used by news agencies. However, there are known cases where official information sources, including state-controlled media, deliberately do not report the extent of the incident, which has contributed to public distrust. In July, journalists reported being asked to soften their language by describing the Lilulan Dam breach as an opening or crack in the dam’s structure. Officials appeared to be trying to make the dam’s failure sound less ominous, but the consequences were deadly. The water that gushed out of the dam killed at least 26 people.
This is not the only such incident. In 2021, local officials in Henan province were arrested and charged with failing to report 139 deaths. Such incidents have created a vacuum of trust that makes it much easier for unscrupulous individuals to spread fake content.
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