The CEO of Hotline.ie, the organisation focused on tackling illegal online content, has stated that AI tools capable of altering images in manipulative ways “should not exist in the world” and ought to be prohibited.
Michael Moran told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland that the “race for AI development” needed to halt, since numerous AI systems lacked proper moderation, reports Breaking News.
He made these comments in response to Elon Musk’s platform X revealing steps to stop its AI chatbot Grok from removing clothing in images of real individuals, after widespread criticism over its creation of sexualised depictions of women and children.
Hotline.ie is dedicated to handling illegal online material, such as child sexual abuse material (CSAM), non-consensual intimate image abuse, and various other types of online exploitation.
Mr Moran commented on the new safeguards that “our initial reaction is that it’s good, you have to welcome any change”, but added that “all of this was and could have been foreseen by the X organisation”, reports Breaking News.
“To suggest that they are now bringing in safety and that they’re to be lauded for it is just not acceptable.
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“Is this the future? Is it to be run out like this with no guidelines and no guardrails in place and no safety built in… and then for the public to react and regulators and legislators to catch up?”
Mr Moran warned that similar issues would keep arising as “new functionality” gets introduced.
“We’re left with a situation where we know that AI can produce new notification apps. We know that AI can produce CSAM. So, is that okay that AI can do this? reports Breaking News.
“Because what we’re going to be left with is… the big companies, they will moderate… but in the meantime, in the background, there are any number of AI engines that have no regulation.
“Functionality is really the key at the end of the day. This race for the development… and making it available to the general public really has to stop.
“You’re going to get into a situation where… safety, regulation, moderation all get left behind. We’ve seen that now in the last couple of weeks, and we need to do something about that to stop it happening in the future,” reports Breaking News.
Mr Moran asserted there was “no legitimate reason” for nudification apps to exist. He mentioned he had been advocating for their ban over the past two years since they first surfaced on the App Store.
“It’s touching on the integrity and the bodily integrity of humans and it should not exist in the world. There’s no reason for it. Not only should they be banned, it should also be illegal for AI to produce CSAM in the first place. What he [Elon Musk] is basically saying is AI will still be able to do this, we’re just going to moderate it. Well, we’ve seen how successful moderation has been in the last 30 years. It hasn’t been. And so let’s see that it’s actually removed as an actual possibility,” reports Breaking News.
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