While the world is entranced in President Trump’s jury selection in New York, Artificial Intelligence is stealing your look. AI is stealing your voice and most distressing, AI is becoming more human. It has advanced faster than any other technology known to man.
At the NAB Show, Futuri’s ‘groundbreaking’ AI was applauded. They showed how an AI robot was able to conduct two studies on the media industry. Meaning this AI robot has replaced the job of those in research and development. More important than the loss of more jobs to AI in our industry, we need to take a closer look at the technology’s effect on the media, especially the human toll of AI Beauty Pageants and Deep Fake Pornography.
Announced this week, the first Miss AI Beauty Pageant is coming to a computer near you with $20,000 up for grabs. Now I know what you are thinking: “Krystina, this has nothing to do with media.” Oh, but friends, it does.
Miss Universe and Miss USA combined are industries worth several billion dollars. From paid commercials to designer dresses, hair, and makeup, it is a cash cow. Now, Maybelline can cut out paying advertisers and models by going straight to the programmers. Maybe she’s programmed with it. Maybe its Maybelline? It would cut costs significantly.
Additionally, since the Miss AI beauty pageant also judges its contestant on how many followers she has (can we call a robot she?), you have a significantly cheaper influencer because you don’t have to send the product to her (because again she’s AI).
Revenue from the health, wellness, and beauty industries could now be transitioned to big tech. Yeah, sure, a 12-year-old programmer living out of their mother’s basement might make enough to pay for one semester of college this way, but is that really the route we want to go here? Not to mention this will give people a significantly distorted sense of reality and beauty.
This brings us to AI porn, which has affected Taylor Swift, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and 30 female teens at a New Jersey high school. Let me repeat that for those who missed the story this past fall, a high school boy took the photos of 30 classmates and turned them into porn. These girls are 14. Not only will they likely spend the rest of their lives taking down the AI porn made of them, but to quote AOC, “It has real, real effects not just on the people that are victimized by it, but on the people who see it and consume it. And once you’ve seen it, you’ve seen it.”
I’m not a fan of AOC, but she has a point. The comments made by conservatives about AI porn made using her image are nasty (and senseless). This should be a bipartisan issue. AOC is also not the only well-known person this has happened to. Twitter had to block #TaylorSwift because of AI-generated porn photos. While this prompted the United States Congress to draft a civil law that would allow victims to sue the makers of these AI images, it falls just short of criminalizing the behavior.
Yes, Rep. Neil Hays (R-OK) proposed legislation last year that would criminalize the creation of deep fakes but it has stalled in the halls of Congress.
As for those nasty comments made by conservatives about AOC, they don’t realize this could happen to them. It could happen to their spouses and children. It’s not just celebrities. Those photos you’ve posted of your children from the time they were born, can now be accessed by the pedophiles of the world and turned into porn. A report, published yesterday by Forbes, shows there is already an increase of AI-made child sex abuse images across the web. Are you concerned yet? You should be.
The European Union and the United Kingdom are working on legislation to make it a criminal act. While the proposals are designed to aid those affected by AI porn, they lack targeting AI which is made to subvert or skew political messaging. It’s not just the videos you watch it’s also the articles you read.
While AI videos still have a long way to go before they are truly believable, we’ve extensively reported on media outlets replacing their writers with AI. A December 2023 study by Science Direct found people were able to positively identify AI writing samples only 38.9% of the time. There are now recruiters on Linkedin asking writers (like myself) to teach AI how to write. Sounds interesting until you realize AI would replace my career as a writer.
While Black Rock’s Larry Fink believes AI will “boost wages and productivity,” he needs to recognize there is already an abundance of jobs in sectors outside of finance that are being eliminated by AI. Business Insider, CNET, and CNBC have used ChatGPT to write stories. BuzzFeed is using ChatGPT to personalize content, a job once held by a person. Law offices are now using services to Casetext to research case law or Lawgeex to read contracts. Another job once held by a legal assistant, or law school intern.
These are all entry-level jobs that are being eliminated. How are people going to gain experience if AI is replacing the entry-level? So, while I congratulate Futuri on their AI research robot, can we put the brakes on the in-your-face AI capabilities and just keep it in the background? We are clearly not prepared, nor do we understand, the full scope of damage this technology can and is doing. (Does anyone remember Terminator, Robocop, Blade Runner, or Ex Machina? This does not end well for us.)
This is a very serious bipartisan issue that is being swept under the rug. So, while everyone is worried about what media outlets each one of Trump’s jurors watches, you should be more concerned with how the media is reporting (or lack thereof) on AI. It is more than just our jobs at risk, it’s our dignity and livelihood which is already being negatively impacted by the technology.
Krystina Alarcon Carroll is a news media columnist and features writer for Barrett Media. She has experience in almost every facet of the industry including: digital and print news; live, streamed, and syndicated TV; documentary and film productions. Her prior employers have included NY1 and Fox News Digital and the Law & Crime Network. You can find Krystina on X (formerly twitter) @KrystinaAlaCarr.
