AI firms should face prison over creation of fake humans.

Israeli historian and author Yuval Noah Harari recently set out his opinion regarding the development and use of AI in recent times. According to Harari, "creators of AI bots posing as real people should face severe criminal penalties, comparable to those who trade in fake currency."

If we cannot be sure who is a real human being and who is not, trust will collapse and democracy will suffer serious consequences, both socially and politically. One solution should be the introduction of fines, or criminal sentences, for those who flood public forums with artificially generated content.

For example, if countermeasures were required, under penalty of a 20-year prison sentence, surely the companies behind online platforms would find ways to prevent the sites in question from being flooded with fake users.