An artificial intelligence (AI) image generator created an image featuring nude children after receiving a prompt about adult beverage brand Bud Light and YouTuber Mr. Beast.
Podcaster Donny Dossey, who hosts Talk About It with Donney Dossey and Daily Wire Friends, which is not officially affiliated with the conservative media outlet, received an image of nude children after prompting Imagine: AI Art Generator to create a thumbnail image for a YouTube video.
Dossey said he wanted to use an AI image generator to create YouTube thumbnails to save time on production for his podcasts.
"I was using a title from one of our past Daily Wire Friends episodes [titled] 'The Bud Light Boycott Is Working! Will The Mr. Beast Boycott Work Too?' and it ended up spitting back the image," Dossey told Timcast News. "I was just like, 'Woah, what the hell?!' And I almost immediately deleted it, but then I thought to myself, 'I need to document this and get the word out about it.'"
The podcaster prompted the AI image generator to create another image based on the prompt and received images related to the prompt.
"The fact that it spit that first image out to begin with was alarming to me, and I felt the need to still make others aware of it."
"Whether it was a one-time glitch or not, something still needed to be done to ensure it didn't happen again," Dossey continued, noting he tweeted his experience out in hopes of bringing light to the issue.
Imagine: AI Art Generator contested Dossey's tweet claim, noting the platform doesn't support the generation of not safe for work (NSFW) content.
"We have implemented strong NSFW filters to prevent such content from being produced on our platform," read the platform's response before requesting the podcaster contact their support email. "This will enable us to retrace your steps and investigate the matter further."
"We take the issue of NSFW content very seriously and will do everything we can to ensure that our platform is a safe and positive environment for all users."
"If this is truly the case, then you have a serious flaw/glitch in your program," Dossey responded, saying he had deleted the application.
The podcaster said he received pushback from critics who claimed he had made up the story — a development that made him feel hesitant about coming forward with the story due to fear of backlash.
"It never ceases to amaze me how many people there are out there ready and willing to defend child pornography," he continued. "I feel like it's people not speaking up about these things that allow for stuff like this to be normalized and ignored."
He continued:It's really sad that we live in a society where people have to be concerned about their livelihood and safety for speaking out against child pornography. The fact that we have to be concerned speaks volumes about how far we've fallen. But regardless of all that, the fact is, this happened. It shouldn't have happened, but it did. And if we're going to be allowing the free use of this kind of technology, there needs to be more safeguards put in place to prevent this kind of stuff from ever accidentally happening at all before it's available for free use.
Dossey added: "They just need to fix their program."
He noted the platform pulls information from the internet for image generation, suggesting the application may have associated Bud Light and Mr. Beast with child pornography.
"That begs the question as to why it's associating either one of them with child porn?"
Timcast News reached out to Imagine: AI Art Generator for comment, though the platform did not immediately respond.
