The White House is calling for legislation to stop Taylor Swift's AI faking

Legislation should be passed to protect people from fake sexual images generated by artificial intelligence, the White House said this afternoon. The statement by White House Press Secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, came in response to a question about the spread of fake sexual photos of Taylor Swift on social media this week.

Jean-Pierre described the incident as “worrying” and said it was among the AI ​​issues that the Biden administration had prioritized.

“Of course Congress must take legislative action,” Jean-Pierre said. “That's how you deal with some of these issues.” She did not indicate any specific legislation supported by the White House.

The images went viral across X in particular on Wednesday night, with one reaching 45 million views before it was removed. The platform was slow to respond, with the post remaining up for approximately 17 hours. The images later spread to smaller accounts and are still available on X.

Jean-Pierre said social media platforms “have an important role to play in imposing their own rules” to prevent this type of material from spreading. “We know that lax enforcement disproportionately impacts women and girls, unfortunately, who are the overwhelming targets of online harassment as well as abuse,” she told a news conference.

Jean-Pierre said the White House had previously launched a task force to address online harassment. But it was clear that this was a patchwork approach. “Clearly there has to be legislation to deal with this issue,” she said.

Congress has spent years criticizing social media platforms for their moderation practices, but the body has so far been unable to agree and pass regulations in response. Taylor Swift's support may be bipartisan, but it's not clear that would be enough to create an actual bill.