X embraces the deepfake chaos

Full story: Bobbi Althoff deepfake spotlights X’s role as a top source of AI porn

Congress keeps not passing any federal law against nonconsensual AI-generated videos of girls and women. So lowlifes keep making and spreading them, with help from Elon Musk's X:

When posters on message boards for AI-generated pornography began circulating deepfake videos of the comedian Bobbi Althoff, the clips reached a relatively muted audience, gaining 178,000 views over the last six months.

Then someone posted one of the videos on X. The fake, which appeared to show the 26-year-old naked and masturbating, was copied and reposted so many times that Althoff’s name was trending on the platform. In just nine hours, the clip received more than 4.5 million views — 25 times the porn sites’ viewership, according to data from an industry analyst.

X, formerly called Twitter, was one of the first social platforms to set clear rules against AI-generated fakes, with executives saying in 2020 that they recognized the threat of misleading “synthetic media” and were “committed to doing this right.”

But under owner Elon Musk, X has become one of the most powerful and prominent distribution channels for nonconsensual deepfake porn. The platform not only helps the phony photos and videos go viral in a low-moderation environment, but it can also end up rewarding deepfake spreaders who can use the manipulated porn to make a buck.

More to read

• 2018: Fake-porn videos are being weaponized to harass and humiliate women: ‘Everybody is a potential target’
• 2020: A shadowy AI service has transformed thousands of women’s photos into fake nudes: ‘Make fantasy a reality’
• 2023: AI porn is easy to make now. For women, that’s a nightmare.
• 2023: AI-generated child sex images spawn new nightmare for the web
• 2023: AI fake nudes are booming. It’s ruining real teens’ lives.

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