Europol, Europe’s policing agency, said it’s seen a marked increase in AI-generated child sexual abuse material, aka CSAM. And they predicted it’ll get worse: “The use of AI which allows child sex offenders to generate or alter child sex abuse material is set to further proliferate in the near future," the agency said in a statement. The technology also makes it easier for perpetrators to cyberbully and sexually extort victims for financial gain.
In a new report, Europol warns of the dangers of deepfake child abuse material. But it also says that the advent of AI makes it difficult to detect what’s real and what’s fake. And AI-generated images could be trained on real CSAM. Massive AI training datasets have been found to include numerous instances of CSAM.GZERO AI
Europol’s CSAM problem
EncroChat and Europol logos are seen in this illustration taken, June 27, 2023.
REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
By Scott NoverJuly 23, 2024
Scott Nover
Scott Nover is the lead writer for GZERO AI. He's a contributing writer for Slate and was previously a staff writer at Quartz and Adweek. His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Fast Company, Vox.com, and The Washington Post, among other outlets. He currently lives near Washington, DC, with his wife and pup.
