The Taylor Swift AI porn debacle seems to be snowballing into a full-blown national emergency and now the White House is involved. Yes, our nation’s executive branch weighed in on Taylor’s fake nudes on Friday, with the top WH spokesperson claiming that the government is concerned about the whole thing but isn’t quite sure what to do about it.
In case you missed it, dirty AI-generated images of Swift have been circulating on X (formerly Twitter). The whole thing has caused quite a stir with the pop star’s fans and has led to some outraged calls for some sort of punitive action.
During a White House press conference on Friday, a journalist asked the Biden Administration Press Secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, whether the government would support a federal criminal statute related to the sharing of AI-generated porn images. Jean-Pierre didn’t answer the question directly, instead noting that the whole Swift situation was, you know, “alarming.”
“It is alarming,” Jean-Pierre told reporters. “While social media companies make their own independent decisions about content management, we believe they have an important role to play in enforcing their own rules to prevent the spread of misinformation and non-consensual intimate imagery of real people.”
In a subsequent tweet posted after the press conference, Jean-Pierre further noted: “We know that incidences like this disproportionately impact women and girls. @POTUS is committed to ensuring we reduce the risk of fake AI images through executive action. The work to find real solutions will continue.”
Well, there you have it. The White House, ostensibly one of the most powerful government entities we have, really thinks someone ought to do something about this whole AI thing. So, uh, Congress, are you guys listening?
The issue of AI-generated porn has been an ongoing issue for female celebrities for years but recent advances in generative AI have made the problem that much worse. Explicit images are now much easier to produce and share and, by some accounts, the technology has led to an explosion in AI porn. Add to that the fact that AI is now being used to create fake celebrity endorsements for scammy products (Swift has been involved in some of those too), and it really seems some new laws might be a good idea, yes? Might be a good idea.