Artificial intelligence: Content veracity and legal considerations

Artificial intelligence: Content veracity and legal considerations

Published on AthensVoice 27/09/24

It is a fact that more and more artificial intelligence products are being reproduced daily on the internet, a powerful tool that has been exploited in many ways by giant companies, influencers, web developers, advertising companies, mobile companies and ordinary citizens for their entertainment.

But what happens if this content has been created to insult or even worse to incriminate an innocent person and especially when this false but plausible creation leads him or her to be the ‘victim’ in court?

Several advertisements have been shown which are products of artificial intelligence (some plausible and some not) for the sole purpose of extorting money from citizens. Well-known doctors and nutritionists “presenting” miracle dietary supplements, actors, singers, influencers and people with general public recognition promoting trading platforms or online betting companies, etc.

When a person falls victim to such a scam and suffers, for example, health damage from an illegal or unsafe pharmaceutical product, it is very likely that the case will be taken to court. The sufferer will take legal action against the nutritionist or doctor who ‘sold’ the product and the doctor or nutritionist who has also been a victim of fraud will take legal action against the person who created the false advertisement with his or her own face.

In cases like this the innocence of the doctor or nutritionist in question can be easily verified. The payment account (or online platform e.g. paypal) will be in another name, the location of the i.p. from which the ad was uploaded will not be the same and several other elements that help prove his innocence.

Artificial intelligence: Content veracity and legal considerations

But what happens if a video or audio document is presented to the court or authorities as evidence of guilt?

The other day I was in a café in the centre of Athens waiting for a friend. Unwittingly, I heard the conversation taking place at the table right next to mine. A man who was in the process of divorcing his wife and determining the custody of the children was discussing with another person about the paperwork.

At one point he said that, fearing that he might not get custody, he would create an audio document of his wife’s voice via artificial intelligence, in which she would speak badly and threateningly against the children and present it to the court, claiming that she was unfit for custody.

In the same way other audio “documents” or videos can be made in order to incriminate people for any act, and yes it is not impossible. At the point technology has reached and at the rate it is going these phenomena will only increase. In the above case we don’t have financial fraud, which will be seen through the account or i.p. nor the sale of products, we have a creation of artificial intelligence with serious implications for the female victim and a product whose authenticity will be difficult to know.

In any case, such actions can also take place in more simple everyday – personal affairs. A malicious person may place your photo next to another woman, place you in a place contrary to your ideological standards, “put” you in the position of badmouthing a friend or girlfriend, and many other imaginative false facts.

Is it possible to prove that an evidence like this is a creation of artificial intelligence?

Most of the videos and audio that are currently circulating on the internet are of good quality but have evidence that they are not real. There are “professionals” of the genre who can make such an audio or video completely believable.

There are programs on the market to identify the authenticity of such a creation, but they cannot determine with 100% success whether it is an AI creation or not.

In any case, the presentation of an audio, video or photograph in a courtroom or to the authorities can possibly be identified by qualified personnel of the e-crime prosecution. But let us consider at this point how much more time-consuming the judicial process will become after an interruption for the expert examination of the evidence.

In America this phenomenon has already begun to cause similar problems, as not only are AI creations being presented to the court as evidence of innocence or guilt, but false claims are being made that actual photographs and videos of the opposing party are AI creations, with the result that the trial is adjourned to allow expert opinion and the process becomes increasingly complicated and time-consuming.

There have always been monsters and defamation.

The difference now in these actions is the difficulty of identifying them, the ease of public access and the plethora of programmes available. From the old days of the internet there was the manipulation of photos via photoshop and of videos and audio via editing or programs. But nothing like today’s quality and the speed of their creation, compared to the endless hours wasted in years past to create or enhance a video or photo.

These new factors resulting from artificial intelligence have caused turmoil and concern in various sectors, not only among the judicial or police authorities but also among ordinary citizens, who are afraid of falling victim to similar fraud. What is certain is that we do not yet know all the problems that will arise from artificial intelligence, as every day something new comes to light, but we also do not know what the top level of this technology will be. If 10 years ago we were told that today we would have these powerful tools at our fingertips it would seem unrealistic, so no one can know what may come to the fore in the next 10.

Pelekasis Lefteris
Private Investigator
pelekasis-detective.gr
Dragatsi 8 piraeus – 2104131298
Detectivemt.gr
Stadioy 39, Athens – 2103616406