Against AI counterfeits and Deepfakes: German celebrities support petition

The author and artist Marc-Uwe Kling (43) should be known to most people because of his moody “kangaroo” books. However, he has now turned with a serious concern and made it aware of one of him. Under the title “Forbid deep people!” He demands it from Friedrich Merz, Markus Söder and Lars Klingbeil: “Save democracy from Deepfkes and Manipulative Bots!”

Due to increasingly convincing AI videos, “a tsunami from counterfeits towards us, which makes it increasingly difficult to distinguish between truth and lie”. Anyone who is also concerned about this development should sign their online petition, Kling asks. Numerous stars have already done this: For example, the over 100 first signers include Michael Bully Herbig, Karoline Herfurth, Annette Frier, Benno Fürmann, Oliver Kalkofe, Bjarne Mädel, Eckart von Hirschhausen, Ruth Moschner and Bastian Pastewka, to name just a few.

The petition has been able to collect numerous other supporters since the creation on Wednesday. The goal of 15,000 signatures was almost reached Thursday afternoon (as of 2:00 p.m.). What Kling and the supporters are important: “The new government has to act. A mere labeling obligation for AI generated content, as is currently the case of the EU, is not enough.”

Even with numerous Hollywood stars, the concern is increasingly growing that their face could be used for Deepfakes and frauds. Only recently had Scarlett Johansson in this regard: “We have to denounce the abuse of AI.” The Marvel actress has been victim of artificially created videos several times and her voice has already been “stolen” by AI. “Unfortunately I have become a very public victim of AI, but the truth is that the threat from AI concerns each one of us.”