[ad_1]
Artificial intelligence could be used to generate “unprecedented quantities” of realistic child sexual abuse material, an online safety group has warned.
The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) said it was already finding “astoundingly realistic” AI-made images that many people would find “indistinguishable” from real ones.
Web pages the group investigated, some of which were reported by the public, featured children as young as three.
The IWF, which is responsible for finding and removing child sexual abuse material on the internet, warned they were realistic enough that it may become harder to spot when real children are in danger.
IWF chief executive Susie Hargreaves called on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to treat the issue as a “top priority” when Britain hosts a global AI summit later this year.
She said: “We are not currently seeing these images in huge numbers, but it is clear to us the potential exists for criminals to produce unprecedented quantities of life-like child sexual abuse imagery.
“This would be potentially devastating for internet safety and for the safety of children online.”
Risk of AI images ‘increasing’
While AI-generated images of this nature are illegal in the UK, the IWF said the technology’s rapid advances and increased accessibility meant the scale of the problem could soon make it hard for the law to keep up.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) said the risk is “increasing” and being taken “extremely seriously”.
Chris Farrimond, the NCA’s director of threat leadership, said: “There is a very real possibility that if the volume of AI-generated material increases, this could greatly impact on law enforcement resources, increasing the time it takes for us to identify real children in need of protection”.
Mr Sunak has said the upcoming global summit, expected in the autumn, will debate the regulatory “guardrails” that could mitigate future risks posed by AI.
He has already met with major players in the industry,…
[ad_2]
