Last week, the internet was flooded with sexually explicit, artificial intelligence (AI)-generated photos of Taylor Swift. One image was shared and viewed 47 million times before the user’s account was suspended by X, formerly known as Twitter. In fact, for every account suspended and photo suppressed, dozens more popped up across the internet. Fans of the superstar and lawmakers have latched on to the incident, demanding new legal systems be established to protect victims of sexual harassment and abuse online. However, Swift is not the first to be victimized. She is perhaps the most famous, but the news is already moving on, looking for the next story. The news will not be there to talk about the mental health crisis that Swift may experience. They will not be discussing how vulnerable Swift may be feeling, how unsafe she might be feeling in her own skin. They certainly are not talking about how AI photos are actively ruining women’s lives and that legal protections do not exist in the Wild West of the internet.
AI is contributing to an unprecedented boom in the porn industry, creating thousands of fake images based on real people. AI has enabled people to use cheap or free programs to analyze photos of people and “undress” them or seamlessly swap their faces with pornographic materials that already exist. According to Genevieve Oh, an industry analyst, fake nudes have increased by more than 290 percent since 2018. These images have included celebrities like Swift and political figures like New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, as well as ordinary teenage girls and women whose images have been seized by bad actors to elicit shame, extort money, further abuse, degrade victims and act out private fantasies. Victims like Gabi Belle, a YouTube influencer who has hundreds of AI-produced images circulating the internet, have little legal recourse. There are zero federal laws governing “deepfake” porn. Only a few states have any regulations. While President Biden did issue an executive order restricting AI, it only recommends companies label AI-generated photos, videos and audio to indicate computer-generated work.
AI images are especially dangerous for women and teens. In a 2019 study by Sesity AI, a company dedicated to monitoring and tracking deepfakes found that 96 percent of deepfakes were pornography and that 99 percent of those photos targeted women. Sophie Maddocks, a researcher and digital rights advocate at the University of Pennsylvania went on the record stating that AI targets ordinary young women. One young girl whose life has been permanently altered is a 14-year-old student. A group of her male peers used an AI app to “undress” images of her and several other female classmates before sharing the images within their community. These boys thought they were committing a victimless crime. They were so focused on their own sexual gratification that they never considered the consequences of their actions.
AI deepfakes are not just an issue for celebrities in the public eye. They are not just a concern for maintaining political integrity. They are a sign that women, girls and other marginalized communities are not viewed as people, but as commodities. AI-generated porn has ruined people’s lives; it is only a matter of time before someone is fired for fake images circulating the web, or is denied a job in the first place for failing to pass a background check. How many young women will have their college applications impacted by fake images? How many abusers will get away with their crimes because they are able to muddy the legal waters with fake images of their victims? How many people will be victimized because there are no legal protections for them?
AI porn is not a victimless crime. It is not an opportunity to act out a fantasy about a person who is out of your league. It is an immoral opportunity to take advantage of people, even if they are thousands of miles away. It is cruel, it is destructive, and it is an obvious sign of the deeply embedded misogyny of global culture. We cannot change how women and children are treated on the global scale when we continue to allow them to be turned into objects, useful only for another person’s pleasure. If Swift’s AI photos made you angry, stay angry. The rest of the world needs that rage just as much as she does. Demand better and be better before you become the next victim of an AI lie.
Is the author trying to rescue Taylor Swift ?
Does Taylor need to be rescued?
Or is it just the propagation of the “spectacle”
LoRa Heinz