Amid a flurry of state-level bills related to deepfake in the United States, California, ..

Amid a flurry of state-level bills related to deepfake in the United States, California, home to Silicon Valley, the “home of big tech companies,” is drawing attention by pulling out a knife.

The deepfake law passed by the California legislature late last month is significant because it is the first comprehensive U.S. regulation of deepfakes using artificial intelligence (AI). The law could also punish cases of creating child sexual exploitation using AI, rather than real children. It stipulates that not only those who produce sexual exploitation using deepfakes, but also those who distribute and possess them should be punished.

With 35 of the world’s top 50 AI companies based in California, it’s a very strict regulation. Big tech, which has been singled out as a distribution channel for deepfakes, is expected to be hit by the law.

AI is considered an important factor that will determine national competitiveness in the future. From the outside, the world says that it is in favor of “safe AI”, but behind the scenes, it is a serious reality that they are engaged in a fierce war of nerves to protect their own industries. When the European Union (EU) introduces the Digital Services Act (DSA), it is a “safe, transparent and trustworthy online environment” that allows platform companies to take responsibility and have a system to respond to illegal and harmful content, fake news, services and products. In other words, platform companies must take responsibility for the spread of illegal and harmful content or fake news and remove it promptly. However, many say that it was a decision by the EU, which has no domestic companies comparable to Big Tech, to promote its own companies and rein in Big Tech. This is the background of “AI Sovereign AI”, which calls for promoting its own models without being subordinate to Big Tech. In fact, it can be said that EU sanctions against Big Tech and US sanctions are fundamentally different in nature. Analysts say the US, where most AI companies are based, is a leader in protecting its own industry. But now that sexual exploitation using deepfakes is on the rise, it has decided to tighten regulations in this area.

According to the New York Times (NYT), an uproar arose in the community last October when boys created, shared and distributed deepfakes using real photos of 10th grade girls (14 years old).

When the Deepfake incident shocked the whole US, the state began to make relevant laws. Previously, there were many forms of containing content created by deepfakes in the law of rebenziforno (distributing sexual photos or videos of former lovers) or sexual exploitation of children.

After Europe, the US has begun to strengthen deepfake regulations using AI, but the Korean government’s measures are still in limbo. Some worry that the prevention law has been prepared since the “Nth Room Incident” in 2019, but the situation that only domestic operators are applied may be reproduced. There are many voices calling for improvement in the reality that global big tech regulations are not used at all. There are also fears that the platform law promoted by the Fair Trade Commission will impose a regulatory burden on domestic platform operators instead of global big tech.

“The US no longer prefers self-regulation, but is more strongly raising the level of business regulation,” said Kim Yoon-myung, a professor at Hallym University of International Studies. “Instead of creating a new law on harmful deepfakes, priority should be given to clearly diagnosing what is missing within the boundaries of the existing legal network and quickly supplementing it.”

(Silicon Valley correspondent Lee Deok-ju / Seoul reporter Ko Min-seo)