Microsoft Corp. and X Corp. today responded to the widespread sharing of artificial intelligence-generated explicit images of the singer Taylor Swift by making moves to stop the generation and sharing of such images.

The explicit AI images of Swift first started being shared across social media, in particular X, last week, causing immediate outrage and a response from the White House that seemed to have been scripted in advance. The calls from the Biden administration and others include demands for further regulation of AI because, apparently, America’s sweetheart being targeted in this way has only now made deep fakes a problem worthy of a White House press briefing.

The politics that are in play aside, Microsoft was at the center of the Taylor Swift story: The company’s AI-powered Designer software appears to have been used to generate the images.

In response, Microsoft has reportedly closed a loophole in Designer that allows such images to be created. 404 Media reported that the new protections include strengthening text filtering prompts to address the misuse of the service.

A spokesperson for Microsoft said that its “Code of Conduct prohibits the use of our tools for the creation of adult or non-consensual intimate content and any repeated attempts to produce content that goes against our policies may result in loss of access to the service.” The spokesperson added that Microsoft has “large teams working on the development of guardrails and other safety systems in line with our responsible AI principles, including content filtering, operational monitoring and abuse detection to mitigate misuse of the system and help create a safer environment for users.”

While Microsoft can approach the issue through AI training and guardrails, by contrast, X — formerly Twitter — has responded to the issue with a proverbial sledgehammer by banning searches for Taylor Swift.

Described as “idiotic” by some publications, the decision was said by Joe Benarroch, head of business operations at X, to be a “temporary action” and was done “with an abundance of caution as we prioritise safety on this issue.” When searching for Swift on X, users now receive a message that states, “Something went wrong. Try reloading.”

The part missing from this story is exactly who was behind the Taylor Swift fake images. So far, the best link to their origin is a supposed shady group on Telegram with thousands or tens of thousands of users — the number seems to vary — that is supposedly dedicated to creating fake porn images of celebrities. The claim about the Telegram group comes from 404 Media and has been repeated verbatim by media outlets but not confirmed by others.

Yet, despite initially claiming that the images came from a Telegram group, 404 Media now claims that they may have originated on 4chan as well. The issue with that is that while the images are all over 4chan, SiliconANGLE can find no evidence of users on the group claiming responsibility. If it was a 4chan trolling campaign, it would be all over the site.

The fact that the fake images have created a firestorm of demands for AI regulation should be seen through a lens of who would benefit from further AI regulation. Although it simply could come down to some trolls on Telegram with nothing better to do with their time, who prompted them to start targeting Taylor Swift and spreading the images as widely as they were spread? Why those images and now? If the timing was nothing more than a coincidence, it’s a very big coincidence.

Photo: Eva Rinaldi/Flickr