Microsoft president Brad Smith has highlighted the proliferation of super-realistic deepfakes as his biggest concern about artificial intelligence.

Smith made the comments in a speech in Washington, aimed to working out how to best regulate and monitor the spread and use of AI.

“We’re going have to address the issues around deepfakes,” Smith said.

“We’re going to have to address in particular what we worry about most foreign cyber influence operations, the kinds of activities that are already taking place by the Russian government, the Chinese, the Iranians.

“We need to take steps to protect against the alteration of legitimate content with an intent to deceive or defraud people through the use of AI.”

Smith agrees that a licensing system needs to be established, with “obligations to protect security, physical security, cyber security, national security”.

“We will need a new generation of export controls, at least the evolution of the export controls we have, to ensure that these models are not stolen or not used in ways that would violate the country’s export control requirements,” he said.

Sam Altman, CEO of Open AI, who received a A$15 billion funding boost from Microsoft earlier this year, told Congress in a separate hearing that the use of artificial intelligence to sway election results is a “significant area of concern” that needs regulation.