AOC plots AI law after seeing herself in deepfake porn
ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ has demanded a crackdown on artificial intelligence (AI) after viewing a deepfake pornographic image of her performing a sex act.
The New York congresswoman, 34, was “shocked” when she spotted the digitally altered image on X, which appeared to show someone forcing her to put her mouth on their genitals.
Ms Ocasio-cortez has repeatedly been targeted with manipulated images and fake social media posts using her image, since being elected in 2018 as the youngest woman to serve in Congress.
However, new AI tools have made the creation process much easier and the advanced technology makes images and videos seem more realistic.
As a result, Ms Ocasio-cortez has been involved in crafting a law intended to stop non-consensual, sexually explicit deepfakes. It would enable victims to take legal action against the producers and distributors of the content.
Talking about her own experience with the porn deepfake in February, she told Rolling Stone magazine: “There’s a shock to seeing images of yourself that someone could think are real. As a survivor of physical sexual assault, it adds a level of dysregulation. It resurfaces trauma. It’s not as imaginary as people want to make it seem ... It parallels the same exact intention of physical rape and sexual assault, which is about power, domination, and humiliation.”
Fabricated pornography accounted for 98 per cent of all deepfake videos posted online, according to a 2023 study by Home Security Heroes, a cyber security firm.
The proposed US law change, which has bipartisan support, would amend the Violence Against Women Act so that people can sue those who produce, distribute or receive the deepfake pornography, if they “knew or recklessly disregarded” that the victim did not consent to those images.