AI regulation: China’s fear of dee • Table.Briefings

In January, China became one of the first countries to present extensive regulations against deepfakes. These regulations stipulate that video and image forgeries, for example, deceptively imitating real-life politicians, must be clearly labeled. Many now see China as a pioneer. However, the fight against increasingly sophisticated technology is turning into an arms race between companies and regulators.

Police authorities in the city of Baotou, Inner Mongolia, reported in May that a man was stolen the equivalent of 622,000 US dollars with the help of deepfake technology. A hacker had tricked him with a deceptively real AI clone of a friend who told him in a video call that he urgently needed money. This was not the naive victim of a grandparent scam. The victim is a senior executive at a tech company in Fuzhou. And yet, his fake friend’s lifelike body language and voice fooled him enough that he instantly pulled out his wallet.

AI regulation: China’s fear of deepfakes

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