London , October 25, 2023 — Paedophiles have harnessed the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to generate explicit images of celebrities portrayed as children, according to a shocking report from the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF). The IWF’s latest findings highlight the disturbing emergence of AI systems being used to manipulate images and create illicit content.

The IWF disclosed that predators are actively circulating manipulated images of a well-known female singer transformed to appear as a child. Furthermore, dark web forums are reportedly teeming with images of child actors that have been reimagined in sexually explicit scenarios.

Perhaps even more concerning is the revelation that AI-powered image generators are now producing hundreds of pictures featuring real child abuse victims. These images are created from text instructions and have raised grave concerns about the ethical implications of AI technology.

This issue has garnered significant attention from global leaders, with Home Secretary Suella Braverman and US Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas releasing a joint statement in May, vowing to combat the “alarming rise in despicable AI-generated images of children being sexually exploited by paedophiles.”

The IWF’s report documents the efforts of researchers who spent a month monitoring AI-generated content on a darknet child abuse website. They identified nearly 3,000 synthetic images that would be illegal under UK law. Analysts noted a troubling new trend, where predators take single images of real child abuse victims and use AI to create many more images depicting different forms of sexual abuse.

One particularly disturbing discovery was a folder containing 501 images of a real-world victim who had experienced sexual abuse at the age of 9-10. In this folder, predators even shared a fine-tuned AI model to enable others to produce more images of the victim.

The IWF emphasizes the high level of realism in these AI-generated images, stating that some are indistinguishable to untrained eyes. The report refrains from identifying the celebrities targeted by these manipulations.

The IWF is now working diligently to ensure this issue gains the attention it deserves. They plan to bring it to the forefront at the UK government’s AI Summit next week, held at Bletchley Park.

Within a month, the IWF’s investigations revealed a shocking 11,108 AI-generated images shared on a dark web child abuse forum. Of these, 2,978 were confirmed to violate UK law, depicting child sexual abuse. Alarmingly, over 20% of these images were classified as Category A, the most severe category. More than half of them depicted primary school-aged children, while some even showed toddlers and babies.

In June, the IWF initially warned of the potential dangers of AI in creating depraved images of children. However, it is now clear that these fears have turned into a grim reality. Susie Hargreaves, the chief executive of the IWF, lamented the situation, saying, “Our worst nightmares have come true.”

The IWF’s report underscores the tangible harm caused by AI-generated images. Although children aren’t directly harmed in their creation, these images normalize predatory behavior and can lead to misallocation of police resources as they investigate fictitious cases. New forms of offense, such as manipulating non-nude modeling photos into explicit scenarios, further complicate the work of law enforcement agencies.

As the issue continues to evolve, the fight against the misuse of AI technology in this manner remains a pressing concern for authorities and advocates of child protection.