TikTok ran a deepfake ad of an AI MrBeast hawking iPhones for $2 — and it’s the ‘tip of the iceberg’::As AI spreads, it brings new challenges for influencers like MrBeast and platforms like TikTok aiming to police unauthorized advertising.
TikTok ran a deepfake ad of an AI MrBeast hawking iPhones for $2 — and it’s the ‘tip of the iceberg’::As AI spreads, it brings new challenges for influencers like MrBeast and platforms like TikTok aiming to police unauthorized advertising.
Everyone with a brain has been saying this would happen for the last decade, and yet there was no legislation put in place to target this behavior
Why does every law need to be reactionary? Why can’t we see a situation developing and get ahead of it by legislating the very obvious things it can be used for?
So, the first reason is that the law likely already covers most cases where someone is using deepfakes. Using it to sell a product? Fraud. Using it to scam someone? Fraud. Using it to make the person say something they didn’t? Likely falls into libel.
The second reason is that the current legislation doesn’t even understand how the internet works, is likely amazed by the fact that cell phones exist without the use of magic, and half of them likely have dementia. Good luck getting them to even properly understand the problem, never mind come up with a solution that isn’t terrible.
The problem is that realistically this kind of tort law is hilariously difficult to enforce.
Like, 25 years ago we were pirating like mad, and it was illegal! But enforcing it meant suing individual people for piracy, so it was unenforceable.
Then the DMCA was introduced, which defined how platforms were responsible for policing IP crime. Now every platform heavily automates copyright enforcement.
Because there, it was big moneybags who were being harmed.
But somebody trying to empty out everybody’s Gramma’s chequing account with fraud? Nope, no convenient platform enforcement system for that.
You’re saying that the solution would be to hold TikTok liable in this case for failing to prevent fraud on its platform? In that case, we wouldn’t even really need a new law. Mostly just repealing or adding exceptions to Section 230 would make platforms responsible. That’s not a new solution though. People have been pushing for that for years.
DMCA wasn’t a blanket “you’re responsible now”, but defined a specific process for “this is how you demand something is taken down and the process the provider must follow”.
IANAL, but can’t MrBeast sue the ad creator company for damaging his reputation?
Good luck with that, I guess This company is gone before misterB can finish writing his lawsuit, and with it all the scammed money. But I guess there is some law forcing platforms to not promote scams, I hope, at least in some countries.
Because no laws will pass without reason.
Why is the solution to every problem outlawing something?
“We need to do something about prostitution. Let’s outlaw it!”
“We need to do something about alcohol. Let’s outlaw it!”
“We need to do something about drugs. Let’s outlaw them!”
“We need to do something about gambling. Let’s outlaw it!”
All of it… a bunch of miserable failures, which have put good people in prison and turned our whole country into a goddamn police state. You can’t outlaw technology without international treaties to make sure every other country follows suit. That barely works with nuclear weapons, and only because two cities exploded by the bombs and at least a couple decades of being afraid of a nuclear apocalypse.
What the hell do you think is going to happen if we make moves on AI? China takes the lead, does what it wants, and suddenly, it’s the far superior superpower. The end.
Hell, how do we know this isn’t China propaganda running on China’s propaganda platform?
Why is legislation= outlawing to you?
Fear mongering.
How is making it illegal to steal a person’s face and make them say things they never agreed to going to make China an AI super power?
Not gonna lie my dude you have a luke warm take
It’s already illegal to impersonate someone to steal money. It’s called fraud.
AI is going to cause huge problems (I am really worried about how things are going to shake out) but I’m also not convinced writing special laws about it is going to change anything. We do need to make sure our current laws don’t have loopholes that AI can somehow exploit.
It’s fraud to use it for financial gain, however it’s not illegal to directly copy someone’s likeness for non business uses.
You can legally make videos of people saying or doing things that hadn’t, and as this technology gets more advanced we will see more of its effects. Politics will be very tricky when you can upload a video of Presidents or candidates saying literally anything.
Not only that, but make someone commit a crime on camera? Even if you aren’t trying to get them prosecuted, it could lead to severe issues. You could ruin someone’s career by making them scream slurs at someone in a Starbucks or make videos of them being abusive to their families.
You can argue its slander and libel, but where does that fall into AI? What’s the line? What if I make a joke song with someone’s voice? What if I make a joke video that has them doing horrible things? What’s the line?
Slander and libel laws don’t have clearer distinctions when it comes to AI voice and video synth
I also think there should be distinctions here. This isn’t just slapping someone’s face onto an ad with a fake quote, this is creating a video of them saying something they never said using a technology that doesn’t just inch closer, but makes leaps and bounds towards being indistinguishable from reality
Trashing someone’s reputation I would imagine, especially if they’re a public figure that relies on their reputation monetarily.
These laws require that there is intent to cause harm to a reputation
How do you deal with cases where these AI cause damage financially but you can’t prove or prosecute on intent?
IANAL, but not asking for permission to use their image/persona shows intent?
So any and all memes made with someone’s face are illegal?
in most countries you cannot. Making a fake of someone saying something they didn’t is slander at the minimum.
So, never mind the fact that almost any use case is going to be for political or financial gain. Let’s just take the Mr Beast example here.
It’s an ad. It’s being used for financial gain, because it’s an ad. Either somebody is actually selling $2 iPhones (doubtful), or it’s a scam. Scams are also illegal, under various kinds of laws. Unfortunately, scams are usually committed in other countries.
This is an ad on a Chinese social media platform. Who’s going to enforce getting rid of this shit on a Chinese social media platform? Yeah, I know you’re going to point out that TikTok US is technically a US company, but we all know who really owns ByteDance and TikTok.
A federal investigation on this matter is going to point to TikTok US and then lead nowhere because the scam was created in China.
One, fraud is already illegal, and there’s plenty of other laws to use in this situation. And none of those laws apply to other countries. A country like China doesn’t give a shit, and will gladly use AI to dupe American audiences into whatever they want to manipulate.
Two, as soon as you ask Congress to enact some law to defend against the big bad AI monster under your bed, it’s going to go one of two ways:
It’s an arms race right now. Either we adapt to these situations with enforcement, education, and containment, or other countries will control our behaviors through manipulation and propaganda. More laws and legislation is not going to magically fix the problem.
Copyright infringement was also already illegal, but mass copyright infringement on major platforms didn’t really get handled until the DMCA came out with specific responsibilities for how platforms had to handle copyright infringement.
Like, if you let 15 seconds of the wrong pop-song appear in a YouTube vid they will come after you because YouTube has to avoid being liable for that infringement, but the phone companies can let scammers run rampant without consequence.
At no point did you come anywhere close to anything that can be considered a rational thought
I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.
Or you could propose alternative solutions instead of building a weird straw man with sex workers and gin.
Are you seriously comparing alcohol. To people stealing someone’s likeness to commit fraud?
That’s already illegal though
If you can prove it. Which takes time and money. It would be far better to update laws to keep up with our tines and put a stop to it before it begins.
What’s being done to Mr Beast, and also Tom Hanks. Is nothing short of Identify theft.