Hold up, researchers are trying to make AI models make nudes? As a job?
There’s a whole area of research focused on ethics and such of AI usage. It’s a massive interest of mine from a philosophical point of view. Unfortunately, it’s incredibly difficult because there are so many things that are just… Very not great topics. Eg., can AI models learn to generate a target without explicitly including it in the training set?
I told a friend that something that concerns me is that very soon (at the time), generative AI will have the capability of generating CSAM material without any illegal training materials (or at least, in theory). They brushed it off saying it isn’t possible and that me thinking about those things is concerning. Not even a month later I started seeing articles discussing how that exact thing is doable now. I haven’t been following the discourse lately, so idk if it has been proven possible/true, but nonetheless it is scary.
Researchers do a lot. I had hoped it would show the world that we need to think deep and hard about AI access and distribution, but unfortunately, governments have embraced AI more than encourage it to slow down.
Fully agree. Boy did you call it, eh.
It is very disturbing and concerning what AI is able to do. AT THE SAME TIME, weirdly enough, wouldn’t it be “awesome” if all these paedophiles got their CSAM material simply from a combination of training data consisting of hentai, regular porn, and generated images of kids (so no real kids, so to speak). You know, rather than actual victims of child sexual abuse.
But ehhh… Still a grey zone, I feel in my gut.
Either way, I’m grateful for people like you who have AI ethics as your interest. We need people thinking hard about this stuff. 🎖️
This is a difficult topic to talk about, but I want to heavily preface that I don’t believe the technology should be encouraged as a supplement of “authentic” material. There is a reason that, as a society, we collectively agree that the sexual exploitation of minors is a form of abuse.
In my opinion, there is a lot we don’t understand about the human mind and we should not be encouraging that AI is a “better” option. It is a very, very difficult subject to discuss succinctly, and I am by no means an expert, but I do not feel that suddenly presuming that the use of generative AI with a more ethical foundation for producing such content is a safe approach. It may encourage and normalise the exploitation of children or encourage people to progressively seek more thrill-seeking behaviour, which will result in people being hurt.
Ultimately, the only thing I can say is that anyone who has such thoughts should seek professional help. That includes paedophiles and anyone who may be slipping down a slop that AI seems to be encouraging.
It’s a fascinating topic philosophically, but the discussion has very, very real, and lifelong consequences.
Also, I want to emphasise that I am not an AI researcher. I do have an education, but I’m not there yet. This is just something I think and worry about a lot.
Oh yeah, definitely, people who want to look at or participate in child sexual abuse definitely need to seek help because that is traumatizing for the victims and cuts wounds that often sets a different course for the victim’s life, also often for the worse.
I just mean like,
- paedophilia perpetrators exist
You know what I mean? And would I rather they look at fake, genAI material, or real material with real victims. 🤷♂️⚖️ I would spontaneously choose the fake, genAI stuff.
But of course I wouldn’t want them to want to look at any of it, whatsoever.
