With rapid advances in artificial intelligence, the public is increasingly aware that what you see on your screen may not be real. ChatGPT will write anything from a school essay to a silly poem. DALL-E can create images of people and places that don't exist. Stable Diffusion or Midjourney can create a fake beer ad — or even a porn video with the faces of real people they've never met.
So-called “deepfake porn” is becoming increasingly common, with deepfakes accepting paid requests for porn with a person of the buyer's choice and a plethora of fake videos that are not safe for work circulating on sites dedicated to deepfakes.
Live streaming site Twitch recently released a statement against deepfake porn after a series of deepfakes targeting popular female Twitch streamers began circulating. Last month, the FBI issued a warning about "online takeover scams," in which fraudsters use content from a victim's social media to create deepfakes and then demand payment not to share them.
What is deepfake porn? How popular he is
Deepfakes refer to visual content created using AI technology, offering anyone access through apps and websites. The deep learning algorithms used can remove clothing from images of women and replace them with bare body parts. While they could also affect men, the algorithms are usually trained on images of women.
Deepfakes really caught the public's attention in 2017 and two years later, in 2019, there were 14,678 deepfake videos online and 96% were pornographic. At the time, all of these featured women, according to research from Deeptrace Labs.
The rise of porn AI adds another layer of sophistication to this, where new technologies like Stable Diffusion create fake porn images. These synthetic sex images are created by artificial intelligence, as they do not depict actual events, but are trained on images of real people, many of which are shared without consent. In online spaces, it is difficult to separate consensual from non-consensual distributed images.
Creating fake erotic images is not inherently bad. Online spaces can be a great way to explore and enjoy your sexuality. However, when fake nude images of people are created and distributed without their consent, it becomes deeply harmful.
They could also create fake erotic images to eradicate the abuse of women who are susceptible to rape and their videos to circulate freely on the internet. They could be used by female protagonists of erotic films to produce them and produce images on sites such as Only Fans. That is, its use could also favor specific situations.
It is likely that the creators of these pornographic deepfakes have no personal contact or acquaintance with the people they choose to misrepresent. This may be because the deepfake attack targets specific personalities, often women, with the intention of silencing or shaming them by spreading misleading information.
Through the information and censorship role performed by Stable Diffusion, the creation of AI porn has created restrictions on its dissemination. In 2018, the Reddit platform banned the use of artificial intelligence in certain porn-related groups, thereby strengthening online security.
In several countries, legislative measures have been introduced to combat the sharing (rather than the creation) of deepfake porn.
For example, in the United Kingdom, there is a law covering this area, while in the United States, only four states have adopted deepfakes-based pornography legislation. Some of these laws are broad and cover image-based sexual abuse, including fake porn.
Concern about how the threat of exposure through image-based sexual abuse affects the daily interactions of adolescent girls and women online is growing, and is expected to call for further research into the effects of these situations on psychological and social well-being.
In order to counter the potential negative effects of artificial intelligence on the pornography industry, it is important to take precautions. Here are some recommendations:
Development of Ethical Guidelines:
Industry must develop and enforce ethical guidelines to guide the use of artificial intelligence. These guidelines should include ethical principles for the creation, distribution and consumption of pornographic content.
Awareness and Education:
It is necessary to raise the awareness of consumers and artists about the dangers of artificial intelligence in pornography. Educational programs can provide information on identifying and reporting illegal and unethical content.
Transparency and Accountability:
Industry must be transparent about its use of artificial intelligence. Platforms should be responsible for controlling illegal content and there should be consequences for violating ethical standards.
Empowering Performers:
Artists should have more control over the use of their image in AI-generated content. This includes the ability to review and remove content from the Platforms.
Research Support:
It is important to strengthen research on the effects of artificial intelligence on the pornography industry. This may include analyzing the impact of AI-generated content on consumers and artists, as well as developing practical mitigation tools and strategies. Researchers should consider the psychological and social effects on the people involved, as well as suggest possible solutions to address the challenges.
With these measures, an environment that respects ethics and protects the dignity of individuals involved in the pornography industry can be achieved. Developing strategies to control and regulate the use of artificial intelligence can help protect the privacy and security of individuals, while raising awareness of the risks posed by artificial intelligence in this area.
*Frontpage picture: pinterest