'AI godfather', others urge more deepfake regulation in open letter

FILE PHOTO: A green wireframe model covers an actor's lower face during the creation of a synthetic facial reanimation video, known alternatively as a deepfake, in London, Britain February 12, 2019. Picture taken February 12, 2019. Reuters TV via REUTERS

BERKELEY (Reuters ) - - Artificial intelligence experts and industry executives, including one of the technology's trailblazers Yoshua Bengio, have signed an open letter calling for more regulation around the creation of deepfakes, citing potential risks to society.

"Today, deepfakes often involve sexual imagery, fraud, or political disinformation. Since AI is progressing rapidly and making deepfakes much easier to create, safeguards are needed," the group said in the letter, which was put together by Andrew Critch, an AI researcher at UC Berkeley.