Midjourney wants to ban generating images of politicians ahead of US election

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Midjourney, the developer of a popular artificial intelligence-based image generator, is considering a complete ban on political image creation to curb the spread of fakes in the run-up to the US presidential election.

Here's What We Know

According to Midjourney CEO David Holz, it's about blocking images of politicians such as Joe Biden and Donald Trump for the next 12 months. Users have previously created compromising pictures and memes featuring these and other high-profile individuals using AI.

“I know it's fun to make Trump pictures — I make Trump pictures,” Holz said. “Trump is aesthetically really interesting. However, probably better to just not — better to pull out a little bit during this election. We'll see."

Midjourney already has rules in place that prohibit the generation of "misleading public figures" and "events." However, political fakes still trickle through the moderators' defences. That said, banning specific personas will not solve the problem of AI being used for misinformation in general.

Other IT companies are also taking steps to combat fake political content. ChatGPT, in particular, will soon start labelling AI-generated images.

Source: Bloomberg