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Fake and graphic images of Taylor Swift started with AI challenge
The fake images of Taylor Swift that spread like wildfire on social media in late January likely began as a chatroom challenge to bypass filters meant to stop people from creating pornography with artificial intelligence, a new study finds.
The images of the pop star can be traced to a forum on 4chan, an online image bulletin board with a history of sharing conspiracy theories, hate speech and other controversial content, according to the report by Graphika, a firm that analyzes social networks.
4chan users who created the images of Swift did so as part of a “game” of sorts to see if they could craft lewd and sometimes violent visuals of famous women, from singers to politicians, Graphika said. The firm detected a message thread on 4chan that encouraged users to try to bypass guardrails established by AI-powered image generators tools including OpenAI’s DALL-E, Microsoft Designer and Bing Image Creator.
Spokespeople for 4chan, OpenAI and Microsoft did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The phony images of Swift spread quickly to other platforms, drawing millions of views and prompting X (formerly known as Twitter) to block searches for the entertainer for a few days.
The mega star’s devoted fanbase quickly launched a counteroffensive on the platform formerly known as Twitter, flooding the social media site with a #ProtectTaylorSwift hashtag amid more positive images of the pop star.
The Screen Actors Guild called the images of Swift “upsetting, harmful, and deeply concerning,” adding that “the development and dissemination of fake images — especially those of a lewd nature — without someone’s consent must be made illegal.”
Phony porn made with software has been around for years, with scattered regulation leaving those impacted with little legal or other recourse to get the images taken down. But the advent of so-called generative AI tools has fueled the creation and spread of pornographic “deepfake” images, including of celebrities.
Artificial intelligence, is also being used to target celebrities in other ways. In January, an AI-generated video featuring Swift’s likeness endorsing a fake Le Creuset cookware giveaway made the rounds online. Le Creuset issued an apology to those who may have been duped.
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Rep. Mike Turner says all “candidates need to deescalate” after Trump assassination attempts
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Sen. Mark Kelly says feds need to do a “better job” of letting Americans know “there’s a huge amount of misinformation” on election
Washington — Sen. Mark Kelly said Sunday that the federal government needs to do its part to inform Americans of the vast swath of election misinformation that’s being consumed on social media platforms like X, TikTok, Facebook and Instagram.
“It’s up to us, the people who serve in Congress and in the White House to get the information out there, that there is a tremendous amount of misinformation in this election, and it’s not going to stop on Nov. 5,” Kelly said on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”
Kelly, who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he’s seen these misinformation operations target not only his state of Arizona, but also other battleground states.
“There is a very reasonable chance I would put it in the 20 to 30% range, that the content you are seeing, the comments you are seeing, are coming from one of those three countries: Russia, Iran, China,” Kelly said.
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In a committee hearing last month on foreign threats to the 2024 election, Kelly presented screenshots of Russian-made web pages showing fabricated headlines designed to look like Fox News and The Washington Post, targeted at voters in battleground states.
“So my constituents in Arizona and others — they seek to influence the outcome of these elections, and that is absolutely beyond the pale,” Kelly said at the Sept. 18 hearing. “We’ve got to do something about it.”
Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump each have the support of 49% of Arizona voters, according to CBS News’ battleground tracker as of Sept. 30.
In another battleground state, Pennsylvania, Trump returned Saturday to hold a rally in Butler three months after an attempted assassination on him. He was joined by members of his own party and billionaire Elon Musk, who said Trump was the only way to preserve democracy and warned of a last election if he does not win in November.
Speaking to CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday, Kelly called the social media mogul a hypocrite.
“He’s standing next to the guy that tried to overturn the 2020 election on Jan. 6, saying that this is somehow going to be the last election and they’re going to take away your vote,” Kelly said. “And you know, it just doesn’t pass the logic test.”
At the White House press briefing on Friday, President Biden – speaking from the podium for the first time since taking office – said he’s confident of a free and fair election but alluded to the 2021 insurrection at the Capitol in his concerns on whether it will be a peaceful transfer of power.
“The things that Trump has said and the things that he said last time out when he didn’t like the outcome of the election were very dangerous,” Mr. Biden said. “If you notice, I noticed that the vice-presidential Republican candidate did not say he’d accept the outcome of the election, and they haven’t even accepted the outcome of the last election.”
