Fury Explodes at Short Films Using AI to Make Erotica of Women From the 1970s

A set of AI short films premiered in Cannes without being part of the official festival. The films were made by using generative AI to animate photos from a 1976 erotic magazine, adding sound and dialogue. The project, distributed by Cultpix and created by Multiformat, generated public outrage on social media. Critics condemned the use of AI to create sexual content from real people’s likenesses without consent. Commentators raised concerns about ethical violations and the reanimation of images of dead women into nonconsensual porn. The controversy also connected to broader debates about AI tools being used to digitally undress people without permission, including recent issues involving Grok.

"Made by the Norwegian company Multiformat and distributed by the streamer Cultpix, the films were created by using generative AI to turn photos from a 1976 erotic magazine into moving images, complete with sound and dialogue, Variety reported. (The collection's name, “Sh(AI)ved,” is nearly as infuriating as its concept.)"

"Uproar erupted on social media blasting the use of the technology and the ethical violations it raised around consent, which seemed to be a question that the filmmakers barely even considered. “Statistically at least a few of these models have passed on by now which basically means they're using AI to reanimate the bodies/images of dead women to make nonconsensual porn of them,” fumed one commentator on Bluesky."

"“Personally, I think using AI to simulate porn of people who didn't consent to you is a vile, horrific crime!” another wrote on X. AI is already controversial for vaguely amalgamating existing artwork and images without the original artists' permission. But this critique is even more salient with Cultpix's project, as it is directly transforming the likenesses of real people, who are shown in sexual poses without their permission."

"Were any of the women in the erotic mags contacted about this? Regardless, there's no excuse to not be aware of these questions. The use of AI tools to nonconsensually generated sexual images of people has been a hot button issue this year, flaring up around Elon Musk's Grok chatbot being used to digitally “undress” women and children."

Read at Futurism