FM Nirmala Sitharaman warns of deepfake videos, urges stronger AI defence

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman highlighted the risks of deepfake videos and AI-driven fraud, calling for stronger defences to protect public trust. She emphasised innovation must be secure, resilient, and inclusive, praising SEBI’s efforts to curb investor impersonation

Mumbai: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said that she has seen several deepfake videos of herself, and called for strengthening defences to maintain people’s trust.

Speaking at the annual Global Fintech Fest here, Sitharaman said artificial intelligence is transforming finance, governance, and also everyday life, but underlined the need to ensure that the technological advances serve humanity and also called for confronting the “darker side”. “The same tools that power innovation can be weaponised for deception and for fraud. I am not personalising it, but I can say that I have seen several deepfake videos of myself being circulated online, manipulated to mislead citizens, (and) distort facts,” she said.

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The videos are just a reminder for the “urgency” with which we need to up our defences against such actors, she said. “The new generation fraud is no longer about breaching firewalls; it’s about hacking trust. Criminals are using AI to mimic voices, clone identities, and create life-like videos that can manipulate people,” she said.

The entire ecosystem, including fintech innovators, investors, and also regulators, has an important role to play on this front, she said, conceding that AI is transforming finance, governance, and also everyday life.

Along with being innovative, systems have to be resilient, secure, and inclusive, the FM said. She lauded the efforts of Sebi to address the issue of impersonation and false representation targeting investors through dedicated unified payments interface (UPI) handles.