As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to advance, some experts have raised concerns regarding the potential risks associated with the technology, but experts at a recent panel discussion with China Global Television Network (CGTN) said there needs to be some guidelines, but human societies are perfectly capable of adapt to the technology.
During a panel discussion with CGTN ahead of the third China Media Group (CMG) Forum, Amr Awadallah, CEO and Cofounder of Vectara, a generative AI platform, said he supports regulating deepfake technology to prevent misuse, and emphasized the need for clear policy guidelines.
"We need to have a balance between developing the technologies to be used for good versus to be used for harm, right? So, deepfakes is a harm, potentially. If you don't have the permission of the person, if I take your photo away and make a character that looks just like you, and start making money off of that, that clearly is harm, that's not a good thing. And the technology exists today for me to very easily do that. So what would prevent me from doing that is there’s the regulations by the governments that says if you make a copy of somebody's image or voice without the permission, then that's a crime. And so we need some regulations to curb the bad uses from taking place. That said, deepfakes can also be used for good. So, if I'm making a movie with some fictional characters like Avatar or World of Warcraft, or whatever, so we need to have clear guidelines around that," said Awadallah.
Conversely, Andy Mok, a senior research fellow at the Beijing-based Center for China and Globalization, expressed his belief in the inherent adaptability of human societies, suggesting that AI concerns will naturally diminish.
"I would just maybe pose this question that ‘will we be worried about this ten years from now?’ I would say probably not and here's why. So if we go back even to Socrates, he worried about with the advent of writing, which I guess was the ChatGPT or the printing press of its day, that this would lead to all sorts of problems where you could fake someone's message in writing, and all sorts of bad things would happen. And of course, bad things did happen. But at the same time, I think humans, civilizations, societies are incredibly resilient and adaptive. So while today, certainly I think government, NGOs, media should be taking steps to educate the public, but at the same time I think this is a self-correcting problem and the people that lead of course need to be ethical. They need to keep the public interest in mind. But I think that this is different from needing to educate the public about how a lot of these things work," said Mok.
The third CMG Forum was held in Beijing on Monday, with this year's event focusing on the role that the media industry can play in the development of AI to ensure the technology becomes a force for good for mankind.
Themed "A Force for Good: Shared Responsibility in AI," the forum attracted more than 200 participants from international organizations, media, think tanks, and multinational companies.
Analysts say AI needs to be regulated, but not worried about
