The US White House continues to actively fight violence on the Internet, paying special attention to abuse related to new technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI). One of the serious threats, which has become especially relevant in recent years, is the spread of sexualized images without the consent of the victims, including materials with the participation of children and images created using AI.
This phenomenon largely affects women, children and representatives of LGBT* community. Vice President Kamal Harris, speaking at the AI Safety summit in London, emphasized the need for global actions to combat this type of violence, which is becoming more and more ambitious every year.
Today, the Biden administration announced voluntary obligations by the developers of AI and data suppliers to reduce risks associated with the creation and distribution of such images. Among the companies that have joined this initiative – Adobe, Microsoft, Openai and other large technology players. These companies have declared readiness to improve their processes of AI to prevent the use of their products to create sexualized images without consent.
Companies promise to strengthen the testing and testing of their systems, as well as delete materials with images of naked bodies from training data. In addition, companies such as Cash App and Square intend to stop providing payment services for those who are creating or distributing such images.
Google also strengthened measures to combat the spread of intimate images without consent to his platforms, making updates to the search engines in July. META, in turn, actively delete accounts related to financial fraud and extortion through sexual images.
These actions were a continuation of the previous obligations of leading companies to combat violence on the Internet. So, in May, the White House called for additional measures, and since then many companies have announced new initiatives to prevent the creation and distribution of sexual images without consent.
Along with these corporate initiatives, a number of public organizations and research centers also submitted its proposals to prevent the spread of such materials. The Center for Democracy and Technologies, the initiative of Cybergrandan rights and the National Combating Network in the Family are working on creating principles to combat violence based on the use of images.
The White House continues to focus on protecting the rights of women and children, as well as the need to improve safety measures on the Internet. In this context, support for the private sector plays a key role in preventing violence and abuse in digital space.
* LGBT movement is recognized as extremist and is prohibited in the territory of the Russian Federation.