(MENAFN- Khaleej Times)

Some people are making their decisions based on deepfake videos that they watch online, and there is a need to deal with this challenge on a global scale, said Omar Sultan Al Olama, Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy and Remote Work Applications, Government of UAE.

He highlighted how the deepfake technology has grown and people are making decisions after watching such deepfake videos.

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"I was at a dinner the other day, and there were a few people talking and asking, 'what would you rather have at home - a dog or a cat'? I found that a very interesting question for a group of people who have nothing to do with pets. I told them I would pet a dog because it is a better animal than a cat. They said a cat can protect you against a bear, a tiger, or a lion attack. I told them I don't think that's possible because of the size of the animals. And they said, 'we'll show you a video'. They showed me a video where a family sitting in their home were attacked by a bear, and the cat goes and attacks the bear. Another similar video of a lion and then of a tiger. Deepfake videos are getting so good that people can't tell the difference, and with that, they are making decisions,” Al Olama told the audience during a fireside chat on the fourth day of Gitex Global 2025.

“So, a few people who were at the dinner were saying, we're going to adopt a cat. Now imagine if that decision was not on a pet but on policy, for example, voting for the next leader of your country, or on decisions that are going to be linked to you, giving away sensitive information to a certain company or another,” he said during the fireside discussion.

Highlighting the dangers of deepfake videos, Abdullah Bin Touq Al Marri, the UAE's Minister of Economy, urged residents and investors not to trust social media videos falsely showing him advising people to invest in specific shares

"I think you've seen a lot of videos about me investing in some shares and an investment programme. I never did that in my life. Please be aware that I will never do it. I would never say invest in these shares. It's actually a deepfake,” Al Marri said at Gitex Global 2025 earlier this week.

Watermarks for deepfake videos

Al Olama noted that the public has credible fears about where AI is heading.“There is a sense of a train leaving the station, and we don't know what the station is. There needs to be a global effort to try to upskill people, to inform them what is happening, and hear their voice.”

The UAE minister pointed out that Gen Z protests that are happening around work are due to young people feeling that the future isn't going to be as good as the present or the past.

On the policy making side, he stressed that it's important that governments actually play a role with the technology community to ensure that there is a clear watermark, or there's a clear way for people to understand that this is a deepfake versus a non-deepfake video.

He said this cannot be done by the government or the private sector, but jointly by the public and private sector.

While speaking during Gitex Global 2025, he stated that it's good for governments to eradicate their own ignorance first and have a global dialogue rather than a local dialogue.“For deepfakes, global dialogues are the only way to go. We can't have local dialogues that are not going to solve the problems.”

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