White House pressures tech industry on sexually abusive AI deepfakes

The White House is pressuring the technology industry over sexually explicit artificial intelligence (AI) images.

President Biden’s White House is putting forth a call Thursday to try and have technology companies willingly cooperate on the problem of sexually explicit AI deepfakes, according to The Associated Press. Officials want the private sector to check the making, proliferation and monetization of sexually explicit and nonconsensual AI deepfakes.

“As generative AI broke on the scene, everyone was speculating about where the first real harms would come. And I think we have the answer,” said Arati Prabhakar, head of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, according to the AP.

The AP obtained a document before its Thursday release that implores action on behalf of AI developers, payment processors, search engines and those who control app stores, according to the outlet.

The administration said that the private sector should work more on stopping “the monetization” of image-based sexual abuse and halt payment access to sites that advertise explicit images of minors, according to the AP.

Prabhakar said to the AP that there is a “phenomenal acceleration” of nonconsensual imagery that has arisen from AI and is mostly aimed at women and girls via a means that can drastically change their lives.

“If you’re a teenage girl, if you’re a gay kid, these are problems that people are experiencing right now,” Prabhakar said. “We’ve seen an acceleration because of generative AI that’s moving really fast. And the fastest thing that can happen is for companies to step up and take responsibility.”

Biden said in a post Tuesday on the social platform X that AI companies “must earn our trust” prior to changing people’s lives.

“Artificial intelligence and the companies that wield its possibilities are going to transform the lives of people around the world — there’s no doubt about that,” Biden said in the post. “But first, they must earn our trust.”

“I commit to do everything in my power to promote and demand safe, secure, trustworthy, and responsible innovation — that includes the use of AI-generated audio,” the president continued. “I ask that AI companies join me in that commitment.”

The Hill has reached out to the White House.

The Associated Press contributed.