Ukraine’s government has drafted an artificial intelligence (AI) roadmap that businesses can use to self-regulate. New tools will help companies adopt an ethical framework balancing corporate and customer interest, a government press release said.
Ukraine’s Prime Minister for Innovation, Education, Development, Science and Technology, Mykhailo Fedorov, said the country needs AI rules to advance its national defense responsibly. Within the new framework, the government hopes to track military resources and deploy countermeasures.
Ukraine’s Bottom-up Approach
An upcoming white paper will advise businesses on the approach, timing, and stages of regulatory implementation. Companies will need to agree on a set of voluntary codes of conduct.
“We do not seek to regulate the AI market, but rather to find a balance between business interests and ensuring an adequate level of protection of citizens from AI risks. Before introducing legally binding regulation… we take into account global realities.”
Businesses, scientists, and educators from the AI Expert Committee at the Ministry of Digital Transformation all contributed to the roadmap. The government hopes to finalize the draft when the European Union passes its AI Act, which is still in the drafting stage.
Ukraine is not a member of the European Union (EU) nor of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) despite having applied for membership in both. The European Commission wants Ukraine to reform its media, judiciary, and anti-corruption laws before considering it for EU membership.
In the meantime, the country’s digital transformation ministry has used technology to combat Russian troops. It has raised funds by selling non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and publishing crypto wallet addresses for people to send funds to.
Read more: NFTs Explained: What Are Non-fungible Tokens and How Do They Work?
How Deepfakes Can Be Weaponized
Ukraine’s AI roadmap come even as leaders grapple with the reality of AI “deepfakes” as a military and financial weapon. A January foreign policy paper written by the Brookings Institute highlighted challenges democratic leaders face in regulating deepfakes.
In March last year, the Ukraine government distanced itself from a video in which Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyy appears to ask Ukrainians to lay down arms. The video turned out to be fake, created by AI deep-learning algorithms that create content from information they are trained on, hence the name “deepfakes.”
Draft EU laws state that companies like OpenAI must disclose content they generate using AI, together with summaries of sources they use to combat disinformation. UK investor Matt Clifford is setting the agenda for an AI summit Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will host in November.
Read more: ChatGPT Review: Everything You Need to Know
Hamas Could Use Deepfakes in Israel War
But the use of deepfakes has more immediate implications for victims of the recent Hamas attack on Israel. Hamas, a Palestinian paramilitary group occupying the Gaza strip since 2007, attacked Israel on Saturday, resulting in the loss of more than 1,000 lives.
The organization has used the latest technologies to bypass government detection and stoke insurrection. In May, the Israeli government seized crypto exchange accounts believed to be funding Hamas operations.
AI tools can, for a few dollars per month, create fake videos of bombings and cause the public to become wary of factual information. Researchers at the Northwestern University have developed TREAD, short for Terrorism Reduction with Artificial Intelligence Deepfakes, to better understand the role deepfakes can play in conflict.
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