Artificial intelligence, those computer programs that are feared by some scientists to at some point in the future take over the world and potentially eliminate mankind, is creating a problem for the here and now, too.
It’s that the newest “nightmare” on the internet is a flood of AI-generated child sex images.
The AI industry “has sparked an explosion of disturbingly lifelike images showing child sexual exploitation, fueling concerns among child-safety investigators that they will undermine efforts to find victims and combat real-world abuse,” explained the Washington Post in a report.
What has until now been recognized as child porn, a serious crime in almost every jurisdiction, now can be created – and look realistic, the report said.
“Thousands of AI-generated child-sex images have been found on forums across the dark web, a layer of the internet visible only with special browsers, with some participants sharing detailed guides for how other pedophiles can make their own creations,” the report warned.
It cited Rebecca Portnoff, of nonprofit child-safety organization Thorn, saying, “Children’s images, including the content of known victims, are being repurposed for this really evil output.”
She continued, “Victim identification is already a needle in a haystack problem, where law enforcement is trying to find a child in harm’s way. The ease of using these tools is a significant shift, as well as the realism. It just makes everything more of a challenge.”
The result is that there could be complications for law enforcement’s tracking of illegal images and require investigators now first to determine whether the images are real, or manufactured, the Post said.
According to a report from Ars Technica, officials from the U.S. Justice Department’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section confirmed that such images are illegal as they depict “minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.”
First, they said, it is “illegal for any person to knowingly produce, distribute, receive, or possess with intent to transfer or distribute visual representations, such as drawings, cartoons, or paintings that appear to depict minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct and are deemed obscene.”
Further, another law “defines child pornography as any visual depiction of sexually explicit conduct involving a minor,” including “computer-generated images indistinguishable from an actual minor.”
The criminality of “faked” images already has been tested, after the Nassau County district attorney in Long Island, New York, confirmed a 22-year-old man was handed six months in jail after 11 women “reported deepfake images uploaded to porn sites that he created using underage photos taken in middle and high school that victims had posted online.”
Other nations have specific bans on such material.
The FBI has warned that the faked images now are appearing on social media and public forums, in addition to porn sites, the report said.
The Post noted Yiota Souras, of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, said that organization has seen a surge in reports of AI images in recent months.
This article was originally published by the WND News Center.
This post originally appeared on WND News Center.