The Download: deepfake porn's stolen bodies and AI sharing private numbers (www.technologyreview.com)

Recent reports highlight alarming trends in the misuse of generative AI, particularly regarding deepfake technology and chatbot privacy breaches. A significant concern is the unauthorized creation of deepfake pornography, where adult content creators find their likenesses exploited without consent. One individual discovered an old video of herself, now altered to feature someone else's face, underscoring the issue of personal agency and ownership in a domain that lacks robust legal protections. This situation poses a grave threat not only to individual rights but also to the livelihoods of content creators who see their identities cloned without approval. Additionally, there are growing concerns about generative AI inadvertently revealing personal information. Instances of AI systems, such as chatbots, exposing users' real phone numbers have been reported, causing distress and raising privacy issues. Experts attribute this problem to the inclusion of personally identifiable information in AI training datasets, which can lead to easy access to sensitive data. These developments signal urgent implications for privacy, ethics, and regulation in the AI/ML field, prompting a reevaluation of data use and creator rights in an increasingly automated landscape.