‘AI is amazing, yet we must confront its darker side’

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said that she has seen several deepfake videos of herself, and called for strengthening defences to maintain people's trust.

Speaking at the annual Global Fintech Fest here, Sitharaman said artificial intelligence is transforming finance, governance and also everyday life, but underlined the need to ensure that the technological advances serve humanity and also called for confronting the "darker side".

"The same tools that power innovation can be weaponised for deception and for fraud. I am not personalising it, but I can say that I have seen several deepfake videos of myself being circulated online, manipulated to mislead citizens, (and) distort facts," she said.

The videos are just a reminder for the "urgency" with which we need to up our defences against such actors, she said.

"The new generation fraud is no longer about breaching firewalls, it's about hacking trust. Criminals are using AI to mimic voices, clone identities and create life-like videos that can manipulate people," she said.

The entire ecosystem, including fintech innovators, investors and also regulators have an important role to play on this front, she said, conceding that AI is transforming finance, governance and also everyday life. Along with being innovative, systems have to be resilient, secure and inclusive, the FM said.

FM launches foreign currency settlement system at GIFT City

Sitharaman on Tuesday launched the foreign currency settlement system in GIFT IFSC, which will facilitate seamless transactions on real-time basis, enhance liquidity management, and ensure compliance.

Currently foreign currency transactions usually get settled with a lag of 36 to 48 hours.

Speaking at the Global Fintech Fest 2025, the finance minister said with the operationalisation of the foreign currency settlement system, GIFT City joins a select list of financial centres that include Hong Kong, Tokyo, Manila, and some other centres which have the infrastructure to settle foreign currency transactions locally.

Sitharaman further said fintech has democratised finance in India.

India ranks third in fintech companies and does half of world's real-time digital transactions, the minister said and added that the government's policy has been to play a role to nurture the fintech sector through a balanced approach.

She emphasised the government's enabling approach towards business, technology and innovation.