Abusive use of AI deepfakes could be made a crime
'We will work in the same way as we acted against cyberbullying and cyberstalking' - Abela
The government is preparing recommendations against the abusive use of deepfakes, the prime minister has told participants of the Parliament of Youths and the National Youth Council.
Deepfakes are realistic AI-generated video, audio, or images that convincingly depict people saying or doing something they never did.
Robert Abela underlined the importance of the responsible use of artificial intelligence, adding that the government is studying the laws and preparing recommendations against the use of deepfakes to bully, blackmail or harass people.
"We will work in the same way as we acted against cyberbullying and cyberstalking, to penalise the use of deepfake to harm people," Abela said.
The action being taken by the Maltese government mirrors similar action in other countries.
On Monday, UK media regulator Ofcom launched a formal investigation into Elon Musk's X over its AI chatbot Grok's image-creation feature that has been used to produce sexualised deepfakes.
The probe came as Prime Minister Keir Starmer warned: "If X cannot control Grok, we will -- and we'll do it fast because if you profit from harm and abuse, you lose the right to self-regulate."
The European Commission, which acts as the EU's digital watchdog, has ordered X to retain all internal documents and data related to Grok until the end of 2026 in response to an uproar over its content.
On Friday, EU digital affairs spokesman Thomas Regnier said the European Commission will be asking platforms to make sure that their systems do not allow the generation of illegal content.
In the US the fatal shooting in Minneapolis by an immigration agent triggered a wave of AI deepfakes. Some X users used Grok to digitally undress an old photo of the victim, as well as a new photo of her body slumped over after the shooting, generating AI images showing her in a bikini. The deepflakes caused an uproar of anger.
France, Malaysia and India had also previously pushed back against the use of Grok to alter women and children's photos, after a flood of user complaints, announcing investigations or calling on Musk's company for swift takedowns of the explicit images.
Musk said that anyone using Grok to "make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content."