Navigating the Unforeseen Risks of Generative AI Technology

Durga Ramakrishna (Krishna) Gadiraju
Published 07/06/2023
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Navigating risks with generative artificial intelligenceGenerative artificial intelligence (AI) is a rapidly evolving technology that can generate and create new content without direct human input. This content includes images, text, music, or even entire videos. These differ from traditional machine learning algorithms designed to classify or make predictions based on existing data.

Organizations want to use AI’s potential to fuel their campaigns and produce cutting-edge content. But along with the incredible creative benefits that artificial intelligence technology offers, it also carries several possible legal hazards.

According to Future Market Insights (FMI), a leading market research firm, the global no-code AI platform market is expected to surge at a CAGR of 28.1 % by 2032. The market is projected to surpass US$ 38,518.0 million by 2032.

 

Generative AI: How Does It Work?


Generative AI works by integrating into platforms to create original material (music, visuals, text, and video) from user-provided musical notation, images, or text (“input”). For instance, a user can ask for material to be generated by AI by typing a text command that specifies the kind of content they want.

This AI model produces content by using words that specify the requested output, while working in tandem with images (or other creative inputs).

Several generative AI systems are taught by working with vast volumes of material that has been illegally scraped from several sources on the Internet.

For instance, Stable Diffusion, the top AI system, purportedly processed and scraped billions of pictures. Generative AI systems may produce new material, such as graphics, audiovisuals, documents, and chat comments (“outputs”). Such content is provided in response to user inputs, thanks to the deep learning models and the algorithms they employ.

 

Basics First: Understanding the Legal and Ethical Implications of Terms of Service


It’s important to read the terms of use for such systems, just as with any other third-party services. It is crucial first to ensure that the platform permits commercial usage of the findings if the firm employs AI-generated content in marketing materials.

Several AI platforms do not include common legal safeguards, including representations, warranties, and indemnifications. Customers employing AI platforms must pay the platform to use their findings.

These AI platforms do not state that their content does not violate others’ rights. In other words, the corporation utilizes the platform’s AI-generated content at its own (or the customer’s) risk.

 

Copyright Possession in the Age of Deep Fakes


According to the United States copyright office, AI-generated works are often not protected by copyrights and cannot be registered since they do not have “human copyright.” The copyright office recently released new guidelines stating that deciding whether AI-generated works are copyrightable would take into account the amount of human copyright.

If an AI-generated work is utilized as the starting point for succeeding creative contributions, the finished product or elements of it may be protected by copyright (although the courts have not yet made this determination). However, without any additional human contributions, AI-generated content alone is not covered by United States copyright laws.

 

Addressing Potential Breaches and Safeguarding Sensitive Data


If the output is strikingly comparable to a protectable version of the copyrighted material used to train the AI platform, copyright issues might emerge. Solicitations for editions in a particular artist’s “style” are typically not protected by copyright. However, they might be if the edition is sufficiently similar to the artist’s original work.

Similarly, inclusion of specific trademarked logos or typefaces depicted in AI-generated material may still result in trademark concerns. To lessen the risk of legal actions based on AI output being claimed as infringement:

  • The company should lessen employing language suggestions that might potentially result in trespassing work, such as encouraging the AI platform to create content in a certain artist’s, writer’s, or musical genre.
  • Uploading ambiguous reference material (such as pictures or music by a certain artist) would probably not help the AI platform get the outcome it wants, but might actually hurt it.
  • No matter what instructions are supplied to an AI platform, there is always a risk that the output may be corrupted when the platform leverages information that has been publically scraped from the Internet.

 

The Privacy Paradox: Balancing Personal Data and Public Resources in the AI Age


In addition to trademark and copyright risks, efforts must be made to ensure that AI-generated results do not violate the privacy rights or rights of any individual.

The “black box” nature of the platform allows AI to generate images based on training data containing photographs of real people. This can be used to produce output that carefully resembles a recognizable person. To lessen the risk of advertising or character claims resulting from such outputs:

  • Text stimulates that are likely to produce images, videos, or sounds that make one look or sound like a specific individual should not be used.
  • Relevant human resources agreement should be checked to make sure the firm has the right to produce and utilize altered AI-generated material.
  • Licensed images of actual people (from stock libraries, for instance) can be used within AI-generated content, instead of asking the AI to generate the content itself.

 

The Rise of AI-Powered Cyber Attacks: Understanding the Threat Landscape


AI can be used to automate cyber-attacks, allowing cybercriminals to launch attacks at a greater scale and efficiency. For instance, AI-powered bots can be used to carry out DDoS attacks, phishing attacks, and brute-force attacks.

AI can likewise be used to create advanced persistent threats (APTs), where attackers use machine learning algorithms to learn about the target network. They can further use this information to launch targeted attacks on the network over an extended period.

 

Ethical Risks in Confidentiality: Anticipating and Addressing Potential Challenges


The computational models that make up generative AI platforms depend on the quality of the data used in their creation. Several generative AI platforms use training data that contains biased information gleaned from the internet. For instance, due to historical gender bias, a fast search for a photo of a CEO is more likely to provide results with more photographs of men than women.

The usage of AI, according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), “has risks such as the latent potential for unfair or biased outcomes and the continuation of standing socio-economic differences.” The FTC recommendation uses research on algorithms used to tailor medical inferences to patients to demonstrate this concern.

Generative AI platforms frequently rely on falsehoods and deceptive data provided on websites where AI models may have been validated. It is also widely believed that AI tools frequently “hallucinate” and produce information that appears to be rational and logical. However, such claims are untrue.

Organizations utilizing AI for biometric, predictive, or diagnostic reasons should often reassess and reevaluate the data models they use for training AI. Ideally, organizations should account for bias and misrepresented data in such sets.

Businesses that wish to use AI to build or synthesize arguments must always verify the reliability and correctness of the results produced. This would help in preventing the spread of misleading information.

Organizations may also think about employing an impartial third party to test and audit the systems they use. This could help ensure that their use of AI tools does not result in discriminatory, misleading, or otherwise biased outcomes.

It is important to understand that the productivity created by the AI platform may be fed back into the algorithms to further develop the platform’s technology. Thus, when making requests to create AI content, sensitive or personally identifiable information should be avoided on a principle basis.

 

Towards the Future!


In addition to being competitive, agencies and promoters must keep up with these new technologies to mitigate legal concerns.

Organizations need to be aware of the potential dangers to intellectual property and legislative limitations that might influence how generative AI findings are used. Companies should adhere to rigorous ethical standards and have data security strategies in place to stop the use of these developing technologies.

Upon seeing the use or integration of AI into business tools or other public material, it is always essential to get legal advice. This is because AI technology is in flux and is nearly constantly being developed and remodeled according to evolving needs.

 

Disclaimer: The author is completely responsible for the content of this article. The opinions expressed are their own and do not represent IEEE’s position nor that of the Computer Society nor its Leadership.