Now, Alia Bhatt's Deepfake Video Goes Viral

Bollywood actress Alia Bhatt has become the latest victim of a deepfake video technology. A video featuring a morphed face of Alia has gained widespread attention on various social media platforms, raising concerns about the misuse of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

The video depicts Alia Bhatt's face superimposed onto that of another woman. The other woman, dressed up in a blue floral co-ord set, in the said clip is seen making obscene gestures to the camera.

Rashmika Mandanna, Katrina Kaif, Kajol, Sara Tendulkar, and industrialist Ratan Tata are the other notable celebrities whose deepfake videos were circulating on social media sites.

Deepfake videos are synthetic media in which a person in an existing image or video is replaced with someone else's likeness.

The issue became a matter of concern after a deepfake video of actress Rashmika Mandanna started doing rounds on social media platforms. Bollywood's Megastar Amitabh Bachchan was the first to react after a fact checker posted the deepfake clip along with the original video of a British-Indian social media personality Zara Patel and emphasised the need for a legal and regulatory framework to deal with deepfakes in India.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has cautioned that deepfakes created by artificial intelligence can lead to a big crisis and stoke discontent in society, as he urged the media to raise awareness about its misuse and educate people.

"In a diverse society like ours, deepfakes can cause a big crisis and even stoke the fire of discontent as people generally trust anything associated with the media in the same way anyone clad in 'gedua' (saffron) tends to get respect from others.

"A new crisis is emerging due to deepfakes produced through artificial intelligence. There is a very big section of society which does not have a parallel verification system," the Prime Minister told journalists at a programme.