Fake and explicit images of Taylor Swift have started appearing on 4chan, Study says

Images of Taylor Swift, generated by artificial intelligence and widely distributed across social media in late January, likely originated as part of a recurring challenge on one of the Internet's most notorious message boards, according to a new report.

Graphika, a research firm that studies disinformation, traced the images back to one community on 4chan, a message board known for sharing hate speech, conspiracy theories and, increasingly, racist and offensive content created using AI.

The people on 4chan who created the images of the singer did so in a kind of game, the researchers said — a test to see if they could create lewd (and sometimes violent) images of famous female figures.

The synthetic Swift images spread to other platforms and were viewed millions of times. Fans rallied to Ms. Swift's defense and lawmakers demanded stronger protections against AI-generated images.

Graphika found a series of posts on 4chan encouraging people to bypass security put in place by image generator tools including OpenAI's DALL-E, Microsoft Designer and Bing Image Creator. Users were instructed to “share tips and tricks to find new ways to bypass filters” and were told: “Good luck, be creative.”

Sharing unsavory content through games can help people feel connected to a broader community and motivated by the cachet they gain for participating, experts say. In the run-up to the 2022 midterm elections, groups on platforms like Telegram, WhatsApp and Truth Social went after election fraud, winning points or honorifics for producing alleged evidence of voter misconduct. (True evidence of voter fraud is exceptionally rare.)

In the 4chan thread that led to the fake images of Ms. Swift, several users received compliments — “nice gen anon,” one wrote — and were asked to share the prompt language used to create the images. One user complained that a prompt showed an image of a celebrity dressed in a swimsuit instead of naked.

Rules posted by 4chan that apply to the entire site do not specifically prohibit sexually explicit, AI-generated images of real adults.

“These images come from a community of people motivated by the 'challenge' of circumventing the safeguards of generative AI products, and new limitations are seen as just an obstacle to 'defeat',” says Cristina López G. , senior analyst at Graphika, said in a statement. “It is important to understand the gamified nature of this malicious activity to prevent further abuse at the source.”

Ms. Swift is “far from the only victim,” Ms. López G. said. The 4chan community that manipulated her likeness featured many actresses, singers and politicians more often than Ms. Swift.

OpenAI said in a statement that the explicit images of Ms. Swift were not generated using the tools, noting that it filters out the most explicit content when training its DALL-E model. The company also said it is using other safeguards, such as denying requests that ask for the name of a public figure or look for explicit content.

Microsoft said it was “continuing to investigate these images” and added that it had “strengthened our existing security systems to further prevent our services from being misused to help generate such images.” The company prohibits users from using its tools to create adult or intimate content without permission and warns repeat offenders that they could be blocked.

Fake pornography generated with software has been a scourge since at least 2017, with consequences for the unwilling celebrities, government figures, Twitch streamers, students and others. The fragmented regulations mean that few victims can take legal action; even fewer have a dedicated fan base who drown out false images with coordinated “Protect Taylor Swift” messages.

After Ms. Swift's fake images went viral, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called the situation “alarming” and said social media companies' lax enforcement of their own rules disproportionately affected women and girls. She said the Justice Department had recently funded the first national helpline for people targeted by image-based sexual abuse, which the department says addresses an “increasing need for services” related to the distribution of intimate images without consent. SAG AFTRAthe union representing tens of thousands of actors called the fake images of Ms. Swift and others a “theft of their privacy and right to autonomy.”

Artificially generated versions of Ms Swift have also been used to promote Le Creuset cookware scams. AI was used to mimic President Biden's voice in robocalls that prevented voters from participating in the New Hampshire primary. Tech experts say that as AI tools become more accessible and easy to use, audio spoofs and videos with realistic avatars can be created in just minutes.

Researchers said the first sexually explicit AI images of Ms. Swift appeared on the 4chan thread on January 6, 11 days before they would have appeared on Telegram and 12 days before they appeared on X. 404 Media reported on January 25 that the viral Swift images had made their way onto the mainstream social media platforms of 4chan and a Telegram group dedicated to offensive images of women. The British News Organization Daily email reported that week that a website known for sharing sexualized images of celebrities posted the Swift images on January 15.

For days,