IN FOCUS: ‘At the click of a button’ – the scourge of deepfake AI porn

In the near future, countries may adopt laws relating to spoofing AI sex.

The federal government of Australia announced in May that it would introduce legislation to outlaw the development and non-consensual distribution of algorithmic porn.

A new law that criminalizes the production of sexually explicit deepfakes without permission was likewise announced by the UK’s Ministry of Justice in April.

Additionally, the new law also stipulates that if the creator does not intend to share it but does wish to” produce alarm, humiliation, or stress to the victim” they will also be tried in court.

When asked if Singapore needs to pass laws to protect against AI-related acts, Mr. Chooi said that the engineering is still evolving.

Because the world moves very quickly, you would n’t want to be passing laws every month or every few years. People are even completely perplexed, he said, and you end up with a very wholesale type of scenario.

Mr. Wong argued that having specific laws may be beneficial, but there might be too many details to handle.

It’s actually the use of AI or its misuse that causes the issue, he said, and it’s very difficult to try to enact every single thing.

There is also the possible problem of under- policy, where the legislation is very large.

” And then you realise that actually ( the ) law is a bit defective”, he said.

With the existing laws, whether it’s the Penal Code or the Miscellaneous Offences Act, they are currently sufficiently broad to cover all this, and we might give it some more day to see how we will basically criminalize AI-related offenses.

If there is some AI use no captured within Singapore’s present regulations, that would be the breaking point to drive for more policy, Mr Wong added.

Another situation might arise where, in Mr. Chooi’s opinion, the highest sentences permitted by the current laws do not appear to be proportionate to the crime. In such a situation, politicians may need to consider enacting new rules.

He said,” I believe a certain amount of such cases must typically be brought up first.” &nbsp,

” When we condemn people, and people are prosecuted and sentenced, one of the goals is public punishment, which is to deliver a message to the public”, Mr Chooi added.

” If it’s not that common therefore there’s no solid reason to do that”.

In response to CNA’s questions, the Attorney- General’s Chambers said it has not prosecuted situations related to AI- generated sex in Singapore.

” For crimes are fairly new, made feasible by the recent development of AI technology”, a spokesperson said.

The attorneys said they have never physically encountered cases where someone is accused of producing vulgar pictures because they are undoubtedly responsible for doing so.

When pressed on why this is the situation, Mr. Wong responded that it must first be reported to the authorities. He gave the example of one superimposing a face on a bare body.

Let’s say I’m unaware of it, or that someone who sees it may not even consider reporting it as false, he said.