Alia Bhatt is the latest target of deepfake video after Rashmika Mandanna, Katrika Kaif

Alia Bhatt's deepfake featued a morphed clip which originally shows a woman making lewd gestures at the camera. (File photo)

Alia Bhatt has become the latest actor to become the target of deepfake with a video showing the star’s face morphed into that of another woman who is featured in the original clip. The original clip shows the woman looking into the camera and making obscene gestures.

This comes days after Prime Minister flagged the misuse of artificial intelligence for creating deepfakes and said the media must educate people about this crisis in making.

Earlier this month, a deepfake video of Rashmika Mandanna sparked concerns of the rampant misuse of artificial interlligence (AI). The widely-circulated clip featured a morphed version of Mandanna entering an elevator. The original video featured Zara Patel, a British-Indian woman with a substantial following and who had originally posted the video on Instagram. The episode triggered a collective outcry from top actors, union ministers and social media users.

Days later, a deepfake video featured a morphed Katrika Kaif in a low-cut white top. The original picture depicted Kaif engaged in a high-octane fight scene with a Hollywood stuntwoman clad in a towel in a sequence from her upcoming film “Tiger 3”. Similarly, actor Kajol too was targeted with a deepfake video.

Actors and celebrities are easy targets of deepfakes because there is ample footage and images of them available on the internet to train AI programs.

As AI has boomed, so has deepfake pornography, with hyper-realistic images and videos created with minimal effort and money.

Last week, Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw met social media platforms to discuss the issue of deepfakes. Terming deepfakes as a new threat to democracy, he said that the government will come up with new regulations soon to tackle deepfakes.

The minister said that companies have agreed on the need for clear actionable work in areas such as detection, prevention, strengthening of reporting mechanisms, and raising user awareness.

Google, which owns YouTube, said in a statement it was committed to responsible AI development and has robust policies and systems to identify and remove harmful content across its products and platforms.

Last week, during a virtual summit of G20 nations, PM Modi called on global leaders to jointly work towards regulating AI, and raised concerns over the negative impact of deepfakes on society.