How Deepfake Video Affect Women: Singer Chinmayi Explains Following Rashmika's Controversy

Actor Rashmika Mandanna has strongly reacted to her deepfake video which went viral on social media.

The actress took to Instagram Story and shared a note that read, "I feel really hurt to share this and have to talk about the deepfake video of me being spread online.

Now, singer Chinmayi has extended her support to Rashmika while speaking about the dangers of deepfake technology. She also recounted another occurrence involving a deepfake video related to veteran actress Simran.

"Several months ago, a video of one of our most favourite actors in an AI avatar performed to Kaavaalaa from Jailer released - only it wasn't her. It was a Deep Fake. Nobody knows for sure whether Ms Simran had consented in advance to her likeness to be used in the Deep Fake AI rendering of Kaavaalaa. She shared it on her social media pages as well," she said.

Talking about Rashmika's incident, she said, "Now a DeepFake Rashmika video surfaces and I just saw her Instagram story where she genuinely looks disturbed - In a country where women's bodies are exploited everyday, Deep Fake is going to be the next weapon they use to target and harass and blackmail girls to extort, blackmail and rape."

The video showed a woman dressed in black workout inside an elevator. Her face has been edited using artificial intelligence (AI) to resemble Mandanna.

The popular singer also pointed out how technology can impact the people from villages.

"Their clueless families in one small village or town is not going to understand when the so called maanam / or honour is at stake. Loan apps harass women borrowers with photoshopped images of their faces over porn photos and they cant deal with that. But a Deep Fake is going to be tougher for the usual untrained eye to spot. Everyone doesn't have high-res displays," the singer added.

She says, "I truly hope there is a nationwide awareness campaign that can kickstart urgently to educate the general public about the dangers of deepfakes for girls and to report incidents instead of taking matters into their own hands."