Zerodha's Nithin Kamath shares own deepfake video, warns of a ‘large risk’

Zerodha's Nithin Kamath said that as the deepfakes improve, it will become harder over time to validate if the person on the other side is real or AI-generated.

Zerodha chief executive officer (CEO) Nithin Kamath on Wednesday shared his own deepfake video to share his concerns about the rising menace of deepfakes.

Nithin Kamath said the deepfake problem will be bigger for banks that have more stringent regulatory requirements during on boarding.

In a long post on social media platform X, Kamath noted that nowadays the process followed by businesses on boarding a new customer is to get identity or address proof data using Digilocker or Aadhaar. The businesses match the face of the customer with the ID proof through a webcam.

"But as the deepfakes improve, I think it will only become harder over time to validate if the person on the other side is real or AI-generated. This problem will be bigger for banks that have more stringent regulatory requirements during onboarding," he added.

"It will be interesting to see how the regulations around this evolve. Going back to the physical way of opening accounts will bring the growth of the entire sector to an abrupt stop," Kamath added. At the end he shocked everyone by saying that the person in the video is not him but a deepfake.

Deepfake menace

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has repeatedly raised concerns over deepfakes and other cons of artificial intelligence.

"Deepfake is a challenge for the whole world... AI tools going into the hands of terrorists are also a big threat. If terrorist organisations get AI weapons, this will have a huge impact on global security... We need to plan how to tackle this," ANI had quoted the prime minister as saying.

Last week, a Supreme Court judge had also voiced her concerns on deepfakes, stating that the emergence of the technology is ground-breaking but also raises alarms regarding privacy invasion, security risks and propagation of misinformation.

"In parallel, the emergence of deepfake technology, a type of artificial intelligence, is a cause of deep concern. Its potential to create highly realistic content easily is ground-breaking in the realm of entertainment but it also raises alarms regarding privacy invasion, security risks and propagation of misinformation," Justice Hima Kohli had said on December 9.

Actors like Rashmika Mandanna, Katrina Kaif and Alia Bhat have fallen prey to the deepfake videos of them going viral on the internet.