Be aware: Anyone could be anyone with AI deep fake
Imagine this. A friend sends you a video, you click it and you soon find out it's you in the video saying something you never said. Sure, it is you in the video but that video staring you right in the face never happened.
It's as if there's a parallel universe with clones in it—yours, mine, and everyone we know.
In our land of folklore, superstitions, and old wives' tales, this seems like a curse inflicted by some mythical creature. Or a scene from the tech-dystopian television series Black Mirror and it might as well be.
This was what happened to CNN Philippines' Ruth Cabal who found herself a victim of the dark side of artificial intelligence or AI.
To put it simply, she just got AI'd—for lack of a better term.
As I wrote in my Jan. 4 Op-Ed column for The STAR, a manipulated video of Ruth appeared on Facebook recently.
In the clip, which has CNN Philippines' on-screen graphic, she is supposedly reporting on a new financial platform where Filipinos can make money. An investment of P14,000 would earn P100,000 to P150,000, Ruth supposedly says in the video.
While she is indeed the person in the video—in her trademark on-cam chic look, her voice and everything she was supposedly saying, however, are deep fake. It was AI-generated.
It was a friend who sent her the video and she was shocked to see her evil doppelganger.
CNN Philippines has officially reported the issue but Ruth said there is nothing else they can do but to wait.
"Our existing cybercrime laws in the Philippines are not clear about their application to AI. What's certain, as many of you have pointed out, is that there has to be some kind of regulation about the use of AI. We can't deny that there are a lot of advantages but also like any other new technology, it is prone to abuse as long as there are no clear-cut rules for its use. This particular Facebook account also is from abroad, so there's the issue as to how the laws or regulations can cross borders," she said.
Cloned journalists
This is not an isolated incident. AI-altered videos of some GMA-7 anchors namely Ivan Mayrina and Susan Enriquez also surfaced online, supposedly promoting a free Mama Mary necklace from the Vatican.
In all, Ruth said that with AI, journalists can now be made to appear saying anything about this or that.
"Journalists are the target because we're known to report news, the truth. People trust us and know we are credible. AI can undermine this," Ruth said.
As a veteran political reporter, Ruth sees danger ahead, especially with the coming midterm elections and the bigger presidential and national elections in 2028.
"What are the implications of this for our democracy especially with elections coming up? Any journalist can be made to appear endorsing or maligning a potential candidate," Ruth pointed out.
A nation of scammers
This also shows that scammers have become more sophisticated.
Authorities and regulators must keep up and be one step ahead of these unscrupulous entities.
I stand with Ruth, my fellow journalist, friend, and M.A. Journalism classmate at the Ateneo de Manila, on this issue and echo her call for stronger cybercrime laws.
What to do then?
We must educate ourselves on the dizzying developments in the tech world. Ignorance will not protect us. We must also demand and practice stricter data privacy acts. We must demand accountability and regulations. We must also consistently educate ourselves, widen our horizons, and elevate our skills.
But the most important thing we can do is to constantly strive to be better humans and sentient beings. Luckily for us, AI has not quite figured out yet how to be human no matter how hard it tries. Its articles, stories, and art do not have even an iota of a soul.
Ruth Cabal's clone is an example of this. At the very least, the real Ruth wouldn't be perpetrating something as inhumane as a scam.
AI wins the moment we lose our souls and the world can no longer distinguish humans from the clones.
