Can we all agree technology should not enable predators to target children?

Earlier this year, Minnesota passed a ban on AI “nudification” apps with a 65-0 vote in the Minnesota state Senate after families and young people advocated for safeguards. These apps allow users to generate nude images of other people, sometimes including children, without their consent. The Minnesota law is an example of leadership fit for the digital age: a bi-partisan decision to stop technology from enabling predatory behavior disproportionately targeting women and children. Even in a state with many differences of opinions, it was not controversial. It was unanimously agreed that this technology, if not stopped, would protect predators and hurt innocent people, especially women and girls.

The law responds to a growing body of evidence and stories of women, teen girls, and children targeted with AI-generated non-consensual images.  According to studies cited by the UN,  90 to 95 percent of all online deepfakes are non-consensual pornographic images, with around 90 percent depicting women. The total number of deepfake videos online in 2023 was 550 percent higher than in 2019. Deepfake pornography makes up 98 percent of all deepfake videos online, and 99 percent of the individuals targeted are women. 

Leaders in other parts of the U.S. like Pennsylvania, North Dakota and California, have followed Minnesota proposing interventions and launching investigations to stop A.I. technology designed to allow the abuse, harassment, stalking, and sexualization of targeted individuals and children.

These state-level initiatives come after the successful passing of The Take It Down Act in U.S. Congress, which criminalizes the nonconsensual sharing of intimate images and AI-generated deepfakes, and requires online platforms to remove them. 

Archewell Philanthropies applauds leadership taking the tech-fueled sexualization of women and children seriously and doing all they can to keep society safe.

Still more bills are sitting, waiting to be prioritized as the need for protection grows. For example, the Defiance Act would create a civil right of action for survivors of nonconsensual deepfakes. It has been passed by the Senate twice but has yet to make it to a vote on the House floor. 

This begs the question: why the delay? The answer may lie in the deepest offense to families and children: the tech industry’s commitment to pushback on these bills to protect their bottom line. 

Big Tech has taken shocking steps to limit restrictions on or accountability for these objectively predatory A.I. product features. Most recently, ahead of the Minnesota law to ban “nudification” apps going into effect tomorrow, the trillionaire leader of the tech company responsible for X’s Grok, sued the state of Minnesota to stop the law from going into place. If one wonders why someone would try to stop a ban on AI technology producing deepfakes of people and children in the nude without their consent, they need look no further than the three different groups, including a UK lawmaker, an Arkansas family, and five children from Tennessee, all filing new lawsuits against that same Grok feature, alleging it created sexual material of them, just this week. The company is mitigating risk to their bottom line instead of aggressively responding to the clear evidence their product features are enabling predators to prey on women and children.

Big Tech companies are raising billions claiming AI will bring society forward, yet they retaliate against basic safety measures to keep children safe. Can AI make our world better while it enables the worst in humans? Should our children pay the price while we wait to find out?