Author: Harshit Chauhan
Did you know, it was just yesterday that I saw the Indian Prime Minister recreate the trending dance online”; “Did you know, The Russian president was playing football with US President Donald Trump”; “Did you know, Napoleon is still alive and seems to be a really good singer.”. These are the statements one can hear from today’s young minds who are not quite aware of the influence of Artificial Intelligence.
Generative AI has taken over Social media in no time, and it has taken such a command over the social media and how people tend to think about certain things, it is hard to believe yet true, the time has arrived when AI cannot recognise its own generation, this is not just Devastating for the upcoming generations who are familiar with the ‘Job drought’ on Earth but also an alarming situation for governments and organizations to finally initiate serious amendments in their book of rules and constitutions such as the EU AI Acts’s labelling rules or the US TAKE IT DOWN Act. The damage that deepfake videos have done to society is irreversible.
On 15th July 2025, YouTube said that it allows AI-generated content to be monetised, provided it is original, authentic, and offers value to viewers. Content that is mass-produced, repetitive, or generated solely to gain views with the help of AI will be ineligible for monetisation. Creators should add meaningful creativity, commentary, or educational value rather than simply uploading unmodified AI-generated material. Realistic AI-generated or altered content must be disclosed when required by YouTube’s policies. Ultimately, AI-assisted channels must meet the same monetisation standards as other channels. Although this decision was taken to enhance and filter the content posted on the platform to keep it original and human ended up where YouTube’s AI demonetized numerous animators, anime content creators and more such people who had original content which was exceptionally good and came from creators whose original work was of high calibre.
Deepfakes are videos that look highly realistic, for example, several deepfake videos of former American president Obama, or the current president Trump can be easily spotted. One can make any known or famous personality say or do absolutely anything. These deepfake videos are made using the new technology of deep learning. This is also the reason these types of videos are sometimes referred to as ‘Photoshop for videos’. Such heinous, traumatizing and dangerous outcomes of this technology are alarming and even a common man needs to worry about deepfakes as much as a celebrity, politician, sportsperson or any other known or famous personality in the world. Although generating a deepfake video was not easy: for the video to be highly realistic, the system was to be fed a huge amount of ‘training data’. The system was shown how the famous person speaks, their mannerisms, their speech patterns, and their pronunciations, but with today’s modern and advanced technology, voice cloning needs only seconds of audio, and face-swap tools work from a few photos. Ordinary people are affected by scam calls cloning a relative’s voice and by non-consensual fake images which is a huge problem for women and schoolgirls.
One of the most alarming cases of deepfake videos was noticed in March 2022, shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, a deepfake video of the Ukrainian president went viral in which he asked Ukrainian soldiers to give up and return to their homes. Watching the video, one could believe the war was over and Russia had won, but even today, when it has been more than a year, the war is not over, nor has Russia won.
In today’s rapidly growing economy with the help of AI, people are trying to find new ways to make money easily and survive the race, from attractive jobs for the young generation like drop shipping to posting deepfake videos and sceptical AI-generated repetitive content regardless of the damage to the reputations of the people whose likenesses are used. people seem to cross every line to gain views and generate revenue online.
Ultimately, the question this article began with, whether technology can detect its own deception, remains unanswered, and the answer cannot rest on technology alone. Platform measures like YouTube’s monetisation policy show that companies are trying to separate authentic content from mass-produced AI material, yet the demonetisation of genuine animators and creators proves that automated filters are still blunt instruments. Meanwhile, as the fake surrender video of the Ukrainian president showed, a single convincing deepfake can shake public belief within hours, and the same tools are now being used by ordinary people chasing views and revenue with little thought for the reputations they damage. The “Did you know” claims that circulate among young minds today are only the early warning. Governments must therefore update their laws, platforms must refine their detection and disclosure systems, and viewers must learn to question what they see before they believe or share it. If we fail to do so, the line between real and fabricated will keep fading, and the cost of that loss of trust will be borne by society as a whole.
