AI Watermarking Is Advocated by Biden’s Advisory Committee Member, Raising Concerns for Parody and Memes

If you’re tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The Biden administration doesn’t seem quite certain how to do it – but it would clearly like to see AI watermarking implemented as soon as possible, despite the idea being marred by many misgivings. And, even despite what some reports admit is a lack of consensus on “what digital watermark is.” Standards and enforcement regulation are also missing. As has become customary, where the government is constrained or insufficiently competent, it effectively enlists private companies. Related: Microsoft President Wants It To Be Illegal To Remove AI Watermark Microsoft And Others Are Developing With the standards problem, these seem to none other than tech dinosaur Adobe, and China’s TikTok. It’s hardly a conspiracy theory to think the push mostly has to do with the US presidential election later this year, as watermarking of this kind can be “converted” from its original stated purpose – into a speech-suppression tool. The publicly presented argument in favor is obviously not quite that, although one can read between the lines. Namely – AI watermarking is promoted as a “key component” in combating misinformation, deepfakes included. And this is where perfectly legal and legitimate genres like parody and memes could suffer from AI watermarking-facilitated censorship. Spearheading the drive, such as it is, is Biden’s National Artificial Intelligence Advisory Committee and now one of its members, Carnegie Mellon University’s Ramayya Krishnan, admits there are “enforcement issues” – but is still enthusiastic about…AI Watermarking Is Advocated by Biden’s Advisory Committee Member, Raising Concerns for Parody and Memes