AI Avatars: Security And Privacy Risks To Consider

AI Avatars: Security and Privacy Risks To Consider

by Ankita Sharma — 4 months ago in Security 3 min. read
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How do you observe privacy in the age of Artificial Intelligence? I mean does it get more strengthened or is it in peril.

Honestly, for humans, privacy has become more important since the verge of AI incubated everywhere.

Let’s understand by taking an example of one of the rising subjects that lies under the branch of Artificial Intelligence.

It is… AI Avatars (digitally created characters that use artificial intelligence).

Also read: What Does “FedEx Shipment Exception” Status Mean? What To Do & How To Handle It?

Basically, artificially created and human-looking characters interact in a more realistic way. Here’s what makes them special, as follow:

👉 Intelligence: These digitally created characters are intelligent in a manner that they can understand and respond to situations. Also, show emotions and carry conversation with logic.

👉 Appearance: In terms of looking, they can be varying from cartoon to realistic 3D model. In fact, using custom AI Avatar services, you can create like a specific person.

👉 Interaction: They are also good in carrying conversation, answer questions, and provide customer service without stress and frustration.

But careful AI avatars are developing technology and it may not be fully reliable for the use of everything. It may have limitations along with security concerns.

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Use Cases Illustrate The Security And Privacy Risks Of AI Avatars

Deepfake Identity Theft: Imagine an AI avatar trained on hours of video footage of a politician. Somebody could use this avatar to create a deepfake video where the politician appears to be behaving something they never did, or saying something negative which never happened, the least to say.

Phishing for Information: Think that you designed an AI avatar that behaves like a customer service representative that could interact with customers online or over phone calls. This could lead to tricking the user into revealing personal information such as passwords or credit card details.

Social Engineering Attacks: Another potential use case of AI Avatars could be used to manipulate users’ emotions or build trust. This could be exploited to spread misinformation or encourage risky behavior.

Speaking of security, AI Avatars pose some security and privacy risks. Here are some of the main concerns.

Data Privacy

These digital characters behave based on a large amount of data and thereby train continuously on these. It is possible that some data include personal information. If this data is not secured, possibilities are leaked or hacked of sensitive information.

To mitigate this threat, the use of strong data security practices is required. For companies that develop and use AI avatars need to have strong data security practices in place to protect user data.

Impersonation

Another big threat is that they are very realistic which means that it can be negatively used as a thread weapon in real life. For example, someone could create an AI avatar that impersonates a real person to scam someone or spread misinformation.

A careful attention and strong observation is required to rectify between real and fake digital character interactions. To mitigate this threat, users should be informed first about whom they are interacting with.

Bias

These AI avatars learn from data (created by humans) gathered from multiple sources, which can be biased. This potential reflects artificially created characters interacting with people.

But this doesn’t mean that the information is wrong, but it could be biased from person to person point of view. Thus, potentially leading to discrimination.

Security Vulnerabilities

Being digitally representative and potentially running with the help of software, AI avatars can have security vulnerabilities. If these tendencies come out, hackers could take control of the AI avatar or steal the data it is trained on.

To mitigate this threat, periodic and expert inspection of software is important. It would be great if the software received security updates from time to time.

In the end notes, these are just a few examples, and the potential risks will continue to evolve as AI avatar technology advances.

Ankita Sharma

Ankita is the Senior SEO Analyst as well as Content Marketing enthusiast at The Next Tech. She uses her experience to guide the team and follow best practices in marketing and advertising space. She received a Bachelor's Degree in Science (Mathematics). She’s taken quite a few online certificate courses in digital marketing and pursuing more.

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