Relevance: GS III (Environment & Science) & GS IV (Ethics) | The Hindu

1. What is the New Trend?

Today, social media is full of fake, computer-made (AI) videos of wild animals.

• The Problem: Anyone can easily create these highly realistic fake videos, known as Deepfakes. They show unreal and bizarre things, like tigers acting like pet cats or monkeys dancing with humans.
• The Reason: People make these fake videos simply to get millions of views and ‘likes’ on the internet, without caring about the harm it causes to real wildlife.

2. Why are these Videos Dangerous?

These videos might look cute, but they cause serious problems in real life:

• False Sense of Safety: Heart-warming videos of children playing with wild animals make people forget real dangers. This is very risky for people living near forests and can lead to deadly human-animal conflicts.
• Spreading Fake Panic: If a fake video shows a wild animal attacking a sleeping person, it causes instant fear. Angry villagers might form groups to hunt and kill real, innocent animals out of revenge.
• Promoting Animal Smuggling: Showing rare, wild animals as friendly house pets increases the illegal demand to buy them from smugglers.
• Wrong Education: Showing a deer and a lion as “best friends” completely confuses students and the public about how the real natural food chain works.

3. AI: Good Use vs. Bad Use

Technology itself is not bad; it depends on how we use it:

• The Bad Use: Fake viral videos spread lies and destroy years of hard work done by forest officers to educate the public.
• The Good Use: Indian forest departments use good AI software to quickly check thousands of real forest camera photos. This helps them accurately count the tiger population in just a few minutes.

4. What Should Be Done?

• We must teach students how to identify fake AI videos.
• Social media companies must follow strict government rules to clearly label such videos as “Fake” or remove them quickly so the public is not fooled.

UPSC Value Box

With reference to the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its regulation in India, consider the following statements:

1. Deepfakes are highly realistic, AI-generated synthetic media that can be used to spread misinformation.
2. The recent advisories by the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) require social media platforms to remove deepfakes within 36 hours of receiving a user complaint.
3. The practice of giving human-like emotions and behaviours to wild animals in digital media is known as Anthropomorphism.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 and 2 only

(b) 2 and 3 only

(c) 1 and 3 only

(d) 1, 2 and 3

Correct Answer: (d)