“Issues in tackling child sexual abuse arising from AI are inherently international in nature, and so action to address them requires international cooperation,” a joint statement signed on Monday said.
“We resolve to work together to ensure that we utilize responsible AI for tackling the threat of child sexual abuse and commit to continuing to work collaboratively to ensure the risks posed by AI to tackling child sexual abuse do not become insurmountable,” the signatories promised.
The move came after the U.K.-based Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) reported that it had analyzed more than 11,000 AI-generated images that appeared over one month in dark web forums, and nearly 3,000 of them depicted child sexual abuse.
The U.K. Home Secretary had also urged big tech giants such as TikTok, Snapchat, and Stability AI, as well as other players, to take action.
“Child sexual abuse images generated by AI are an online scourge. This is why tech giants must work alongside law enforcement to clamp down on their spread,” said Home Secretary Suella Braverman on Monday.
The IWF has warned that the proliferation of this imagery not only endangers the public by normalizing sexual violence against children but also revictimizes innocent survivors of abuse because images are created of children "who have appeared in 'real' child sexual abuse material in the past."
Additionally, some of the AI-generated images even feature celebrities who have been "de-aged" and depicted in abusive scenarios. Additionally, innocent images of children found online have been manipulated by AI to appear inappropriately exposed.
“We first raised the alarm about this in July. In a few short months, we have seen all our worst fears about AI realized,” stated Susie Hargreaves OBE, Chief Executive of the IWF.
“The realism of these images is astounding and improving all the time. The majority of what we’re seeing is now so real, and so serious, it would need to be treated exactly as though it were real imagery under U.K. law,” she added.
As part of the U.K.'s commitment to addressing the challenges of AI, the country hosted the first-ever global AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park.
The summit aimed to stimulate international action to promote the safe and responsible development of frontier AI, attracting participation from key nations, technology companies, researchers, and civil society groups.
