TL;DR: World-famous pop star Taylor Swift has turn into the most recent sufferer of deepfake pornography this week, after AI-generated pictures of her have been shared tens of hundreds of thousands of occasions on social media platforms. With that, deepfakes are again within the legislative consciousness. Congressional representatives and even the White Home have now weighed in on the matter.
Specific pictures of singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, 34, have been shared on X this week, garnering over 27 million views and 260,000 “likes” earlier than the account that posted the photographs was shut down. That did little to cease the unfold although, as the photographs have continued to flow into and have reportedly been seen over 40 million occasions.
Responding to the incident, X has been actively eradicating the photographs and has disabled searches for Taylor Swift on the platform to attempt to comprise the unfold. In an announcement, it stated, “We’re carefully monitoring the state of affairs to make sure that any additional violations are instantly addressed, and the content material is eliminated.”
However on-platform moderation is probably not sufficient. Now, members of the US Congress and even the White Home have weighed in on the problem. US consultant Joe Morelle has stated that deepfake pictures “could cause irrevocable emotional, monetary, and reputational hurt – and sadly, girls are disproportionately impacted.”
Democratic consultant Yvette Clark stated, “what’s occurred to Taylor Swift is nothing new. For years, girls have been targets of deepfakes [without] their consent. And [with] developments in AI, creating deepfakes is simpler & cheaper.”
On Friday, White Home Press Secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, known as the photographs “alarming” and stated in an announcement, “Whereas social media firms make their very own unbiased selections about content material administration, we consider they’ve an necessary function to play in imposing their very own guidelines to forestall the unfold of misinformation, and non-consensual, intimate imagery of actual folks.”
What’s occurred to Taylor Swift is nothing new. For yrs, girls have been targets of deepfakes w/o their consent. And w/ developments in AI, creating deepfakes is simpler & cheaper.
This is a matter either side of the aisle & even Swifties ought to have the ability to come collectively to resolve.
– Yvette D. Clarke (@RepYvetteClarke) January 25, 2024
As acknowledged by Consultant Clark, this isn’t a brand new challenge. However with such a high-profile goal, the issue has lower by means of the general public discourse and now could also be a attainable goal for future laws.
Within the UK, specific deepfakes have been made unlawful underneath the On-line Security Act in October 2023. PornHub, a significant on-line supplier of grownup media, has banned deepfakes on their platform since 2018.
Ms. Swift has but to remark publicly on the incident.
Whether or not or not this newest high-profile incident results in legislative modifications, it is clear that AI content material is already inflicting points for law-makers. Simply this week we reported on the primary identified occasion of AI-generated messaging getting used to suppress voter turnout, after a pretend President Biden known as New Hampshire residents and urged them to not vote.
