Let’s go after deepfake pornography sites – and the social media giants that peddle them

In recent months, people have shared digitally altered sexual images of celebrities including Taylor Swift. Photograph: Ennio Leanza/EPA

Most people’s fears about AI are focused on the future. But we’re not paying nearly enough attention to how these technologies are already dramatically increasing cases of sexual abuse in the present.

Take deepfake pornography, a form of image-based sexual abuse in which digitally altered sexual images of victims are created and shared without people’s consent. This is rising dramatically in Britain: Google “deepfake porn” and the top results will not be critical discussions of this abuse, but sites where one can buy and access these abusive images. I’ve been writing about sexual abuse for years, and I’m deeply concerned that we’re not doing enough to stop this.