The White House said this afternoon that legislation is needed to protect people from false sexual images generated by artificial intelligence. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre made the statement in response to a question about fake photos of Taylor Swift that circulated on social media this week.
Jean-Pierre called the incident "shocking" and said it was one of the Biden administration's AI priorities. "Congress should certainly take legislative action. This is how you deal with some of these issues," she said. She did not mention any specific legislation the White House supports.
The images went viral on the X platform in particular on Wednesday night, with one image reaching 45 million views before being taken down. The platform was slow to respond and the post stayed there for about 17 hours. The images were later spread to smaller accounts and are still visible on X.
Jean-Pierre said social media platforms "have an important role to play in enforcing their own rules" to prevent the spread of such material. "We know that lax enforcement disproportionately affects women and girls, who, sadly, are the vast majority of targets of online harassment and abuse," she said in a briefing with reporters. "The White House has previously launched a task force to address online harassment. But this was clearly a patchwork approach. Clearly, legislation should be introduced to address this issue."
The U.S. Congress has criticized social media platforms for years for moderation, but so far has been unable to agree on and pass corresponding regulations. It now appears that there will be bipartisan support for Taylor Swift, but it's unclear whether that will be enough to achieve an actual bill.