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The harms of AI: suicide, taking advantage of the deaths of strangers, creating pornographic ‘deepfakes’ and defective products | Technology

The harms of AI: suicide, taking advantage of the deaths of strangers, creating pornographic ‘deepfakes’ and defective products | Technology
AI Damage
Olena Zelenska, wife of the president of Ukraine and victim of a hoax about the false purchase of a Bugatti created and spread with the help of AI, on an official visit to London last May.DYLAN MARTINEZ (EL PAÍS)

Sewell Setzer, 14, committed suicide last February after falling in love with a character created by artificial intelligence on the platform Character.AIaccording to the teenager’s family’s lawsuit against the company. The late Paul Mohney never saw combat or Olena Zelenskawife of the president of Ukraine, has bought a Bugatti Turbillon. But false information, created with the help of artificial intelligence (AI), has been spread with the intention of making easy money through advertising on obituary pages or to generate Russian propaganda. A school cleaner from Edinburgh, with a single-parent family of two children, was left without her benefits like many other women in her circumstances, due to a bias in the system’s artificial intelligence. To a customer of a payment platform, the algorithm warned of a transaction that never existed, a lawsuit questions the safety of a vehicle due to an alleged programming error and thousands of users see used your data without consent. At the end of the artificial intelligence chain there are people, but the responsibility for the damage it can cause to them is not completely defined. “Here we find an alarming legislative vacuum,” warns Cecilia Danesi, co-director of the master’s degree in AI Ethical Governance (UPSA) and author of Consumer rights at the crossroads of artificial intelligence (Dykinson, 2024).

Make money off the deaths of strangers. It is easy and cheap with artificial intelligence, even if it is at the cost of spreading falsehoods that increase the pain of the relatives of the deceased. It is done through obituary pages where the AI ​​creates information about the deceased with real or invented data, such as Mohney’s military history, to gain traffic and, therefore, advertising revenue. “There is a whole new strategy that relies on getting information about someone who has died, seeing that there is a small increase in traffic, even if it is in a particular area, and quickly publishing articles about the person to get these trickles of traffic,” explains search engine expert Chris Silver Smith to fast company.

false information and deepfakes pornographic. The page AI Incidents Month after month, it collects dozens of alerts of incidents generated by artificial intelligence or cases of abuse and has already identified more than 800 complaints. In one of its latest records, it includes false information about the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, the Democratic candidate for the US presidency, Kamala Harris, or about false and realistic pornographic images (deepfakes) of British policies. Fear of the effects of these creations and their viralization in democratic processes is increasing and 31% of Europeans believe that AI has already influenced their voting decisions, according to a survey for the European Tech Literacy Report 2024, developed by the Center for the Governance of Change (CGC) of IE University.

“Citizens’ concern about the role of AI in the conduct of elections is growing. And, although there is still no clear evidence that it has caused substantial alterations in its results, the emergence of AI has increased concerns about misinformation and technology. deep throughout the world,” says Carlos Luca de Tena, executive director of CGC.

“In creating a fake video or image with generative AI, it is clear that AI is a medium, a tool, so the responsibility will be on the creator. The main problem is that in most cases it is impossible to identify it. The case of the pornofake [imágenes falsas de contenido pornográfico]For example, it has a direct impact on the gender gap since the platforms encourage you to use them with images of women. By having more photos of this genre, they become more precise with our bodies and the result is the greater marginalization and stigmatization of women. Therefore, in the era of misinformation and cancel culture, education is extremely important and that as users we do the double check [doble comprobación] of each content we see and, above all, verify it before interacting with it,” explains Danesi.

The researcher, member of Women for ethics in AI of UNESCO and co-author of the report presented at the G20 Brazil on algorithmic audits, he adds, in relation to the effects of misinformation: “An algorithm can have a double role: one for the creation of fake news through generative AI and another, through search engines or algorithms. social networks that viralize false content. In this second case, it is clear that we cannot require the platforms to verify each content that is published. It is materially impossible.”

Automatic discrimination. Among the complaints about AI malfunctions there is also one for the inclusion of a bias that harms single-parent families (90% women) in a Scottish benefits system. “Although the AI ​​Regulation has various provisions to avoid bias (especially regarding the requirements that high-risk systems must meet), by not regulating issues relating to civil liability it does not contribute to the victim receiving compensation. The same happens with the Digital Services Law, which imposes certain transparency obligations for digital platforms,” explains Danesi.

Defective product. The AI ​​incidents page includes a court case opened due to a possible defect in the programming of a vehicle that could affect safety. In this sense, the researcher details: “With regard to the reform of the Defective Products Directive, it also remains halfway. The problem lies in the types of damages that can be claimed under the rule, since it does not include, for example, moral damages. Attacks on privacy or discrimination are excluded from the protection of the Directive.”

These cases demonstrate, in Danesi’s opinion, that one of the areas of law that needs prompt attention due to the arrival of AI is that of civil liability. “Because consumers are extremely exposed to the damage they can cause. If we do not have clear rules on how to proceed against these damages, people are left unprotected. But, in addition, clear rules on civil liability provide legal certainty, encourage innovation and, in the event of a harmful event, encourage the conclusion of an agreement. This is because, as companies know the rules of the game in terms of responsibility in advance, they decide where and what to invest in with greater certainty about the scenario in which they will work,” he argues.

There are initiatives at European level that try to address the issue, according to the researcher, such as the Artificial Intelligence Regulation, the Digital Services Law (which establishes measures that affect the algorithms of digital platforms, social networks, search engines, etc.), the proposed AI Liability Directive and the imminent reform of the Defective Products Directive.

“That Directive had become obsolete. It was even debated whether or not it was applicable to AI systems, since the definition of a product was based on something more physical and not digital. The modification includes an expansion of the product concept since it includes digital manufacturing files and computer programs. The focus of the standard is on the protection of the individual, which rightly makes it irrelevant whether the damage is caused by a physical or digital product,” he explains.

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Michelle Williams

I'm Michelle Williams, an enthusiastic author specializing in captivating entertainment content on Rwcglobally.com. With a passion for storytelling and a keen eye for the latest trends, I aim to engage readers with compelling narratives that reflect the dynamic landscape of the entertainment industry. Join me on Rwcglobally.com to explore the world of film, television, music, and more, as we uncover the stories that define contemporary culture.

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