As Age Verification Takes Over Gaming, Will It Triumph in the AI Counterfeit Era?
“Age Verification Is Sweeping Gaming. Is It Ready for the Age of AI Fakes?”
“As artificial intelligence swoops into the mainstream, the tech has the potential to transform industries—and to pose fertile new ground for would-be fraudsters.” A chilling prediction from Wired, reminiscent of an artificial intelligence dystopian science fiction plotline. But wait, before panicking about rogue robots, let’s break it down to something as mundane as age verification systems in gaming and their susceptibility to fakery.
Age verification, a seemingly simple regulation measure trying to protect minors from age-restricted games, is apparently struggling to adapt in the era of sophisticated AI. And truly, why wouldn’t it? As AI is intruding into every nook and cranny of our digital world, we’d be silly to assume it wouldn’t try to outsmart a security measure built with code and algorithms.
Cue the comedic entrance of age verification by facial recognition, akin to being carded at a pub—except it’s your game console doing the checking. Nice try. But with ‘deepfakes’, the AI technology that impersonates people’s physical appearance and voices by studying images and recordings, slipping into our digital arsenal, carding in attaining virtual access might not be so foolproof after all. Ah, the magic of technology, outsmarting itself!
Meanwhile, conventional age verification methods like inputting birth dates are far from foolproof. Everyone online has time-traveled to being older than 18 at least once. Maybe it’s time we admit that the system is flawed and needs more than a band-aid to fix.
Cognitive science-based age estimation, sophisticated AI that pegs someone’s age through engagement and interaction, is peeking on the horizon. But this just sounds like another beautiful chaos waiting to unfold, where every boss you defeated in a shooter game makes the system think you’re a seasoned 40-year-old war veteran.
Funny how these minute interactions between AI and humans are shaping the problems and solutions of the future. Surely, the ongoing AI revolution will force us to think out of the box in terms of age verification. Ideally, sooner rather than later. After all, if we’re going to live in a world where robots might try to outsmart us, we might as well make it as difficult for them as possible. The future is indeed a riveting spectacle.