Letters to the Editor: Ban AI-generated ‘deepfakes.’ The risk to society is extreme

To the editor: Artificial intelligence is a Pandora’s box. We cannot allow it to escape into society without regulating it.

Of the myriad negative consequences sure to follow from unrestrained AI, producing credible copies of actual people (as seen with social media influencer Caryn Marjorie’s “virtual girlfriend” clone) is the most dangerous and should be unconditionally outlawed.

Contrast the trivial value to society of easing a popular influencer’s workload with the profound harms to come when we can no longer distinguish real humans from fakes, real government officials from clones, and real scientists, philosophers and journalists from frauds.

Yuval Noah Harari, the Israeli public intellectual, has expressed major concerns about AI in general, and particularly about the ability to create these “deepfakes.” He argues that we can and must subject this technology to an absolute ban. Counterfeiting currency is relatively easy to do, he notes, but we keep it in check via serious punishment for violations.

We must regulate AI before our society becomes unrecognizable.

Grace Bertalot, Anaheim

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To the editor: Caryn Marjorie. Influencer. Followed by millions. A hero for modern times.

Really?

A picture accompanying this article tells a different story. Under gray skies in an empty and cold gray plaza wearing a gray coat sits the influencer. Alone. Just her and her phone.

It shows someone with millions of “followers” and no friends.

Is this the future we have made for ourselves? Is this the final whimper?

Robert Rufer, Yucca Valley