Microsoft CEO Nadella responds to Taylor Swift’s AI-generated deepfake images

Microsoft chief Satya Nadella said the spread of Taylor Swift’s sexually explicit AI-generated fake images is “alarming and terrible”.

In an upcoming interview with NBC Nightly News, The Verge reported, Microsoft CEO Nadella emphasised the widespread dissemination of explicit content needs swift action.

“I would say two things: One, is again I go back to what I think’s our responsibility, which is all of the guardrails that we need to place around the technology so that there’s more safe content that’s being produced. And there’s a lot to be done and a lot being done there. But it is about global, societal — you know, I’ll say, convergence on certain norms. And we can do — especially when you have law and law enforcement and tech platforms that can come together — I think we can govern a lot more than we think— we give ourselves credit for,” Nadella said.

Taylor Swift’s deepfakes

A wave of pornographic deepfake images of US pop star Taylor Swift, created using artificial intelligence became viral on social media platforms this week.

Reality Defender, a group focused on spotting fake content, found a flood of inappropriate and fake explicit images of Taylor Swift circulating on the social media platform X, while some pictures were also posted on Meta platforms. “Unfortunately, they spread to millions and millions of users by the time that some of them were taken down,” said Mason Allen, Reality Defender’s head of growth.

The researchers discovered several unique AI-generated images, with the most shared ones depicting Swift in football-related scenes, often showing her in a demeaning or violent manner.

Swifties flood internet with hashtag #ProtectTaylorSwift

Swift’s devoted fanbase, known as “Swifties,” swiftly responded by launching a counteroffensive on X. They used the hashtag #ProtectTaylorSwift to flood the platform with positive images of the pop star. Additionally, some reported accounts sharing the deepfake content.

How has X, Meta responded?

“Our teams are actively removing all identified images and taking appropriate actions against the accounts responsible for posting them,” the company wrote in the X post. “We’re closely monitoring the situation to ensure that any further violations are immediately addressed, and the content is removed.”

Meanwhile, Meta said that it strongly condemns “the content that has appeared across different internet services” and has worked to remove it.

“We continue to monitor our platforms for this violating content and will take appropriate action as needed,” the company said.