It was somewhat inevitable that the European Union would enforce legislation against deepfake porn and nudify (or “undress”) apps, but it’s surprising and welcome that they have chosen only to target the companies behind the apps, rather than attempt to criminalize the likely millions of European citizens who have used them. This is in contrast to the draconian positions of countries such as the UK, Australia, and South Korea – where simply making a “non-consensual intimate image” for private enjoyment is enough to earn a custodial prison sentence as a sex offender.
The move follows a huge backlash against Elon Musk’s Grok chatbot being allowed to generate thousands of “sexualized” bikini pics of celebrities and children, and the subsequent intense lobbying from feminist and “save the children” NGOs. According to the EU’s official news site “Euro News“:
These tools turn generative AI into a targeted instrument for harassment and digital abuse, stripping away the subject’s bodily autonomy. Non-consensual explicit content directly violates fundamental privacy rights and undermines digital ethical standards. These programs are increasingly categorised as predatory technologies.
The provisional agreement signed on May 7th will come into force in December, and will make tech companies responsible for any non-consensual nude images. The onus will be on the companies themselves to build draconian guardrails that completely prevent the creation of a single such image. Otherwise, those companies could face massive fines at the very least.
Whatever you think about the morality of nudify apps and deepfake porn, draconian legislation forcing companies to ensure there is no possibility that their tools could generate such material will be a blow to AI porn tech. The easiest way to make an AI image generator compliant is to simply prohibit any NSFW prompting.
