In an age where fraud and fakery have been turbocharged by artificial intelligence tools, the Indian government has proposed rules to explicitly label all AI-generated content shared in the country.
The IT and electronics ministry has invited feedback on a proposed amendment to the IT Rules, 2021, that would ensure all AI-generated text, sound, and visuals are clearly labelled as such.
If AI companies fail to do so, platforms like Google, Meta, and X would be required to ensure compliance.
This comes two years after the US mandated such labelling, and months after the European Union and China did so.
Reproducing faked voices and images are tricks as old as their recording technologies. What worries lawmakers today is that these things can now be done by too many people, at too little a cost, and with an increasingly uncanny level of resemblance.
On the positive side, experts are stretching the possibilities of communication with legitimate AI-generated content.
For example, a confectionery company recently collaborated with Shah Rukh Khan to allow retailers to create hyperlocal ads, imagine one of the biggest stars promoting your local shop.
On the negative side, people’s lives are being ruined and elections swung by malicious fake content.
Now, like the Indra-Dhwaja, the ceremonial staff posted at the corner of ancient performing stages to warn viewers not to consider an act’s content truthful the government wants visible labelling on AI-generated content to notify its provenance.
The complaint that November 6 is too short a deadline for public and industry feedback is fair.
This is too consequential a rule to be hurriedly implemented and then tinkered with again.
However, the industry chorus that labelling ruins the persuasiveness of legitimate AI output has been debunked by research published by Stanford University’s Institute for Human-Centered AI this July.
The worry over deepfakes is all too real. From Anil Kapoor in 2023 to Aishwarya Rai and Chiranjeevi this year, a parade of film stars has sought court intervention to protect their image rights amid AI-powered misuse.
While refuge has been provided under common law, the lack of separately codified personality or publicity rights is increasingly felt in India today.
Before that’s on the table, the government must sharpen and quicken the redress mechanism for fake content—for celebrities as well as common citizens.
