Australia to ban AI-generated child abuse content

Australia will require search engines like Google and Bing to take action to stop the sharing of artificial intelligence-generated child sex abuse content, the nation's internet regulator announced on Friday. According to a new code created by industry heavyweights at the government's request, search engines must make sure that such content is not displayed in search results, according to a statement from e-Safety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant. Moreover, she stated search engine AI processes must be unable to create synthetic versions of the same content.

Deepfakes are another name for the synthetic copies of the substance. Inman Grant states, "The usage of generative AI has evolved so swiftly that I think it's caught the world by surprise to some extent." The code illustrates how the proliferation of devices that automatically create lifelike content is changing the legal and regulatory environment surrounding internet platforms. According to Inman Grant, a previous code draft by Alphabet-owned Google and Microsoft-owned Bing did not address AI-generated material, so she urged them to start over. We had a draft code that was no longer useful when the top competitors stated they would incorporate generative AI into their search functionalities.

Inman Grant continued; we begged the industry to give it another shot. A representative for the Australian advocacy group Digital Industry Group Inc, of which Google and Microsoft are members, expressed satisfaction that the regulator had accepted the updated version of the code. The spokesperson noted, "We worked hard to incorporate recent developments in generative AI, codifying best practices for industry and offering additional community safeguards.

Earlier this year, the agency registered safety regulations for several other internet services, including social media, mobile applications, and equipment suppliers. Late in 2023, those codes came into force. Despite opposition from privacy advocates worldwide, the agency still establishes safety regulations for online storage and private messaging services.