What to Do About the Junkification of the Internet
What to Do About the Junkification of the InternetEarlier this year, sexually explicit images of Taylor Swift were shared repeatedly X. The pictures were almost certainly created with generative-AI tools, demonstrating the ease with which the technology can be put to nefarious ends. This case mirrors many other apparently similar examples, including fake images depicting the arrest of former President Donald Trump, AI-generated images of Black voters who support Trump, and fabricated images of Dr. Anthony Fauci.There is a tendency for media coverage to focus on the source of this imagery, because generative AI is a novel technology that many people are still trying to wrap their head around. But that fact obscures the reason the images are relevant: They spread on social-media networks.Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, YouTube, and Google Search determine how billions of people experience the internet every day. This fact has not changed in the generative-AI era….