After a deep fake video of actor Rashmika Mandanna became viral on social media, many celebrities raised worry about the misuse of artificial intelligence (AI).
Actor Naga Chaitanya took to X and posted in response to Rashmika's post on Monday, "It's truly disheartening to see how technology is being misused and the thought of what this can progress to in the future is even scarier. Action has to be taken and some kind of law has to be enforced to protect people who have been and will be a victim of this. Strength to you."
Rashmika replied to his post on X, saying, "Thank you @chay_akkineni." The 'Mast Magan' singer Chinmayi Sripaada penned a long note on X to spread awareness about the issue. She wrote on X, "Several months ago, a video of one of our most favourite actors in an AI avatar performed to Kaavaalaa from Jailer released - only it wasn't her. It was a Deep Fake. Nobody knows for sure whether Ms Simran had consented in advance to her likeness to be used in the Deep Fake AI rendering of Kaavaalaa." She added, "She shared it on her social media pages as well. Now a DeepFake Rashmika video has surfaced and I just saw her Instagram story where she genuinely looks disturbed - In a country where women's bodies are exploited every day, Deep Fake is going to be the next weapon they use to target and harass and blackmail girls to extort, blackmail and rape; Their clueless families in one small village or town is not going to understand when the so-called maanam / or honour is at stake." "Loan apps harass women borrowers with photoshopped images of their faces over porn photos and they can't deal with that. But a Deep Fake is going to be tougher for the usual untrained eye to spot. Everyone doesn't have high-res displays. I truly hope there is a nationwide awareness campaign that can kickstart urgently to educate the general public about the dangers of deepfakes for girls and to report incidents instead of taking matters into their own hands."
In response to that, Rashmika wrote on X, "Thank you @Chinmayi for creating awareness on this hoping strict action is taken and regulated guidelines are put into place." Notably, in the unconfirmed video, it can be seen that a woman with Rashmika's face was entering a lift wearing a black swimsuit. The video quickly went viral and several social media users came forward to confirm that it was a deepfake.
Meanwhile, on the work front, Rashmika will be seen in 'Animal' opposite Ranbir Kapoor and in the Pan-India film 'Pushpa 2'. She also has 'Chaava' in her kitty. The film is all set to hit theatres on December 6, next year.