Taylor Swift’s deepfake nightmare

The rapid spread of AI-generated fake images of the pop star awakens the world to the dangers of artificial intelligence

Fake, sexually explicit images of pop star Taylor Swift this past week caused ripples around the world, as the dangers of AI-generated images caused concerns.

The social media platform, X, took the drastic step of temporarily halting any search results on the singer as it tried to stop the spread of the photos. Many say it was a welcome action but came too late.

The fake images had already been seen many millions of times before they were pulled. The controversy has led to a new bill in the US that has just been introduced by a bipartisan group of senators, which would criminalise the spread of non-consensual, sexualised images generated by artificial intelligence.

Essentially, victims can sue those who produce or distribute their sexually explicit images made without their consent or even anyone who received the material knowing it was not made with consent.

The White House also weighed in, calling the spread of the fake Swift photos as “alarming”. The White House Press Secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre said while there need to be laws to tackle the misuse of AI, social media platforms also need to ensure this content is banned on their sites.

This is a stand that needs support across political and geographical boundaries. While AI presents us with huge opportunities and innovation, its misuse has huge consequences.

Ripples across borders

That is why the government of India has also warned social media companies that they will be held accountable for deepfakes posted on their platforms, in compliance with “clear and explicit rules”.

The warning comes just a couple of months before India’s general election, where there is growing concern about the misuse of AI to spread fake news. India has warned platforms “identify and remove misinformation to which is patently false, untrue or misleading in nature and impersonates another person, including those created using deepfakes”. This has separately led to another debate about whether India is over-policing the internet. That is certainly a concern.

But it is not just the Indian election that could be impacted. The US election later this year has a lot at stake and already fake videos and even audio of Joe Biden and Donald Trump have been called out.

A fake audio of Biden telling voters to skip the New Hampshire primary alarmed many experts. Social media platforms have taken some steps to deal with misinformation but clearly, they need to do much more.

Search engines like Google also have a responsibility to act. Victims of a deep fake have to fill out a form on Google but the process is known to be tough and tedious. By the time someone acts, a video has already gone viral and the damage has been done.

Taylor Swift is famous and her fans lead the outcry against her fake images. But millions of less well-known women and girls are vulnerable to this harassment.

Nidhi Razdan is an awardwinning journalist. She has extensively reported on politics and diplomacy.