Deputy Premier urges Sarawakians to stay vigilant, informed against rising threat of deepfake scams

File photo for illustration purposes only. Photo credit: Pixabay

KUCHING, Jan 3: Sarawakians have been urged to stay vigilant and informed about the latest developments in artificial intelligence (AI) technology to avoid falling victim to evolving online scams, including those using deepfake techniques, where scammers create videos using the likeness of another person such as a celebrity or politician.

Deputy Premier Datuk Amar Dr Sim Kui Hian issued this warning following incidents involving Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and its Finance Minister Lawrence Wong being targeted by deepfake scam videos promoting fraudulent investment products.

In these deepfake videos, which surfaced online in December last year, scammers employed AI technology to replicate the voices and images of the officials, using authentic footage from official events.

The resulting videos appeared convincingly genuine but were entirely fabricated, falsely endorsing a cryptocurrency scheme.

Deepfake AI is a form of artificial intelligence designed to create realistic image, audio, and video deceptions.

“Artificial intelligence – love it or fear it, we still have to embrace and understand it. However, everyone irrespective of race or religion, rich or poor, professional or not, young or old, must prepare ourselves for the increasing abuse of AI in online scams, including with deepfake technology.

“This is just the beginning and the worst is yet to come,” he said in a post shared on his social media page recently.

Dr Sim recognised the lag in Malaysia’s legal framework to address the complexities of technological advancements.

“But this is a problem faced worldwide as government regulators struggle to keep up and enact suitable laws promptly.

“Many of our lawmakers are still trying to understand these advancements, before we can pass the necessary laws in Parliament or DUN (State Legislative Assembly) to protect our citizens, the public and private sectors, NGOs (non-governmental organisations) and businesses, where the court can act on those who abuse the power of AI,” he pointed out.

Dr Sim, thus, called on all Sarawakians to take the initiative to stay informed about the increasing misuse of AI and to comprehend how it works and the threats it posed.

“In this era of AI, the impact is not confined to Sarawak alone, but it will eventually affect global humanity. There is a pressing need to regulate AI,” he added. — DayakDaily