The tech world’s nonconsensual, sexualized deepfake problem is now bigger than just X.
In a letter to the leaders of X, Meta, Alphabet, Snap, Reddit, and TikTok, several U.S. senators are asking the companies to provide proof that they have “robust protections and policies” in place and to explain how they plan to curb the rise of sexualized deepfakes on their platforms.
The senators also demanded that the companies preserve all documents and information relating to the creation, detection, moderation, and monetization of sexualized, AI-generated images, as well as any related policies.
The letter comes hours after X said it updated Grok to prohibit it from making edits of real people in revealing clothing and restricted image creation and edits via Grok to paying subscribers. (X and xAI are part of the same company.)
Pointing to media reports about how easily and often Grok generated sexualized and nude images of women and children, the senators pointed out that platforms’ guardrails to prevent users from posting nonconsensual, sexualized imagery may not be enough.
“We recognize that many companies maintain policies against non-consensual intimate imagery and sexual exploitation, and that many AI systems claim to block explicit pornography. In practice, however, as seen in the examples above, users are finding ways around these guardrails. Or these guardrails are failing,” the letter reads.
Grok, and consequently X, have been heavily criticized for enabling this trend, but other platforms are not immune.
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Deepfakes first gained popularity on Reddit, when a page displaying synthetic porn videos of celebrities went viral before the platform took it down in 2018. Sexualized deepfakes targeting celebrities and politicians have multiplied on TikTok and YouTube, though they usually originate elsewhere.
Meta’s Oversight Board last year called out two cases of explicit AI images of female public figures, and the platform has had nudify apps selling ads on its services, though it did sue a company called CrushAI later. There have been multiple reports of kids spreading deepfakes of peers on Snapchat. And Telegram, which isn’t included on the senators’ list, has also become notorious for hosting bots built to undress photos of women.
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