The Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) has announced partnership with 60 Data Protection Authorities (DPAs) across the world to endorse a Joint Statement on AI-Generated Imagery and the Protection of Privacy, aimed at strengthening safeguards against the misuse of artificial intelligence technologies.
This was contained in a statement signed by the Head of Legal, Enforcement and Regulations, Babatunde Bamiboye on Tuesday.
The Joint Statement which was coordinated by the International Enforcement Cooperation Working Group of the Global Privacy Assembly, underscored growing global concerns over the privacy implications of AI tools capable of generating highly realistic images and videos of identifiable individuals.
The regulators expressed concern over the increasing use of AI-powered platforms to create non-consensual imagery, defamatory materials and other harmful content.
They noted that children and other vulnerable groups are particularly at risk.
The DPAs called on organisations developing or deploying such technologies to implement strong data protection safeguards, ensure transparency in their operations, provide effective and accessible content removal mechanisms, and comply fully with applicable privacy and data protection laws in their respective jurisdictions.
The endorsement forms part of Nigeria’s broader efforts to promote the responsible development and deployment of artificial intelligence.
The Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Bosun Tijani, had earlier spearheaded the initiative for the development of a National AI Strategy to guide ethical and innovative use of AI in the country.
The NDPC has also issued its General Application and Implementation Directive (GAID), which mandates privacy by design and privacy by default in the development and deployment of AI tools and other data-driven technologies.
National Commissioner of the commission, Vincent Olatunji, directed that Compliance Audit Returns (CAR) under the Nigeria Data Protection Act would serve as a key benchmark for monitoring and evaluating responsible AI-driven data processing in Nigeria.
