American singer Taylor Swift's fans and followers were left furious after the singer's sexually inappropriate AI-generated photos circulated on social media.
The fake images of Swift were predominantly circulating on X, previously known as Twitter.
In the AI photos, Swift was seen striking in explicit poses during a Kansas City Chiefs game. The images showed that the pop star has been to multiple NFL games this season amid her relationship with Travis Kelce.
According to NDTV, the photos originated from an AI celebrity porn website on January 15.
The photos were viewed millions of times before being deleted from social media platforms. However, nothing on the internet is truly gone forever, and others have undoubtedly shared on other less regulated channels.
One of the more well-known postings on X had received over 20,000 reposts, hundreds of thousands of likes, and more than 45 million views before the user who published the images had their account suspended.
According to the Verge, the post was up for 17 hours.
Swifties expressed disgust over the images and started spamming the trending hashtags on X with legitimate photos and videos of the singer.
"Whoever making those Taylor Swift AI pictures going to heII," a user said. "Whoever is making those Taylor Swift AI pictures, you are a disgusting person," another said.
On Thursday, "Protect Taylor Swift" began trending on X as fans issued a mass report for the accounts that shared the fake photos.
Another user added that the same men who call Taylor Swift mid are searching for "Taylor Swift AI" because they cannot see women successful, but they enjoy them being degraded.
An enraged user wrote, "With the Taylor Swift Ai pics I think it's clear that we need some kinda legislation or something against this s***. It's easy to tell it's Ai right now because it's mainly used for ridiculous s***, but it's just gonna get harder and harder to tell with time. F****** bleak."
AI-Generated Photos Trend
Recent developments in artificial intelligence technology have led to a rising problem of users producing "deep fake pornography," where celebrities and other public figures' faces or likenesses are transformed into sexually explicit nude photos or generated into pornographic videos.
AI has been used to produce "revenge porn," in which users alter partners' photos or make intimate photos or videos without consent.
"Taylor Swift AI" immediately started to trend, which promoted the images to a broader audience, which are still visible on the platform despite X's ban on manipulated media.
Since late 2022, the platform has been receiving criticisms for gutting its moderation team under the direction of Elon Musk, relying on automated systems and user reporting.
Outlet 404 Media reported that it had traced the images back to a specific community on Telegram dedicated to unpleasant pictures of women.