It can go by a lot of terms: artificial intelligence, AI, deepfakes, computer generated intelligence, algorithmic bias and the like. Whatever you want to call it, it has to be stopped.

Although artificial intelligence has been a concept for pretty much the entirety of the Information Age, the means of using artificial intelligence have gone beyond expansive evolution for the past couple of years. So much so, that humans cannot control what they themselves have programmed.

How did this happen?

Humans are naturally inclined to curiosity. Artificial intelligence helps to generate answers for questions that humans cannot find a collective answer for.  

Art theft

Have you ever thought about what a dog realistically driving a motorcycle while eating ice cream would look like? AI image generators, such as DALL-E, Stable Diffusion or Midjourney can do such tasks. Other websites such as DeviantArt have also added their own AI art generators.

Although one can easily photoshop or draw certain visions and ideas, there really is something magical about artificial intelligence creating something up out of just a prompt. While a human might be biased towards a specific style or perspective, artificial intelligence can certainly be more open. These programs do this by scraping the Internet for photos, being able to take traits that are common conceptions of an idea.

Stable Diffusion has been hit with a number of legal challenges filed by artists and companies. Getty Images announced in Jan. that they were initiating legal proceedings against Stable Diffusion, stating that Stable Diffusion “unlawfully copied and processed millions of images protected by copyright and the associated metadata owned or represented by Getty Images absent a license to benefit Stability AI’s commercial interests and to the detriment of the content creators.”

Text generators

AI generation has also adapted to text. ChatGPT is a newly popular language optimization software, claiming that the program is able to answer followup questions, admit its mistakes, challenge incorrect premises and reject inappropriate requests.

Concerns have already been murmured by professors and students during class about such programs being used for purposes of academic dishonesty. After all, why would someone willingly put in the work of writing an essay, when a program can do it for you in just a couple of minutes, all entirely uniquely generated? 

The question arises if we as human beings can trust these artificial intelligence programs to do our important tasks. Can we trust artificial programs to represent the very real and physical entity that is our humanity?

No, we can’t. Although text generation can certainly be helpful, it is neither ethical nor honest.

Deepfakes

In the Twitch streaming world, one particular streamer, Brandon “Atrioc” Ewing confessed to looking at paid deepfaked pornography of fellow female streamers—some of whom are his own friends. Erwing was exposed after accidentally revealing these deepfake websites.

Female streamers, including Sweet Anita and QTCinderella, have expressed their anger at the exposure of pornography, after finding out they themselves were subjected to portrayal of deepfake pornography.

Certain websites have already banned the use of deepfakes, such as social media sites from Reddit to Discord, to even pornography sites such as PornHub. When PornHub, out of all companies, is for once more up to date on a particular social issue than our Congress is, there’s a problem. Technology is too quickly evolving for legislation to crack down on it on a nationwide level. 

Wherever you are, regardless of who you are and what you have done—nothing will protect you. Nothing can stop perverted freaks from deepfaking photos of you. Nothing can stop AI image generators from stealing your artwork and photography, and text generators have free reign to scan your own work.

These AI programs and generators have to be regulated. For a safer society.