Aadhaar can help tackle deepfake scams like digital arrests, says Nandan Nilekani

Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani speaking at the AIMA event in New Delhi on February 21

Amid growing concerns over deepfakes and online fraud, Infosys co-founder and chairman Nandan Nilekani believes that Aadhaar could serve as a safeguard.

He was speaking at a fireside chat with Nalin Mehta, Managing Editor, Moneycontrol, at an AIMA session in New Delhi on February 21.

Although deepfake scams have become a global problem, India faces a unique challenge.

“India is the only country which has a scam called digital arrest. I don’t think any other country has digital arrest as a scam category,” Nilekani noted.

In digital arrests, victims are tricked into believing they have been virtually detained by authorities.

"In some sense Aadhaar solves the issue. If you want to show someone is a live person, you can Aadhaar authenticate him," Nilekani said.

Leveraging AI, Aadhaar verifies biometric authentication by doing liveness checks.

Meanwhile, with artificial intelligence models relying on vast amount of data in order to be effective, Nilekani said that the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act provides a strong framework to govern the usage of such models.

"People will be rightfully concerned if their data is being used and so on. Fortunately, we have a very good DPDP Act. That, I think, will also govern AI usage," Nilekani said.