HONG KONG — Chinese language authorities in Hong Kong have launched a prison investigation after greater than a dozen feminine college students and academics on the College of Hong Kong accused a male legislation scholar of utilizing AI to generate deepfake porn pictures of them.
The probe, introduced Tuesday by the Workplace of the Privateness Commissioner for Private Information, got here after an outcry from college students on the college, town’s oldest, who mentioned it hadn’t accomplished sufficient to guard them or punish the accused.
“The pictures have been organized into folders named after the victims, totaling 700+ pictures (together with the unique photographs),” learn a extensively circulated letter that was posted Saturday on Instagram from an account run by three unnamed victims.
The accused, referred to within the letter solely as “a male legislation scholar,” took photographs of the victims from social media and used AI software program to generate pornographic pictures with their faces, based on the letter. The pictures have been found on his laptop computer reported to the college in February. They weren’t recognized to have been extensively distributed.
In March, the college interviewed a number of the victims, and in April knowledgeable considered one of them that the accused scholar had written a 60-word “apology letter.”
Whereas NBC Information was unable to verify the authenticity of that letter, and the account didn’t reply to a request for remark, the college mentioned it was “conscious of the social media posts regarding a scholar allegedly utilizing AI instruments to create indecent pictures.”
“The College has already issued him a warning letter and demanded him a proper apology to his affected friends,” the college mentioned Saturday in a assertion.
Deepfake porn is a kind of nonconsensual pornography that includes altering present pictures or creating fully new ones utilizing available AI instruments to make it seem that an individual has participated in sexual acts.
Laws in Hong Kong across the expertise are presently sparse. Whereas it criminalizes “publication or threatened publication of intimate pictures with out consent,” it doesn’t explicitly outlaw their era.
Within the U.S., laws govern dissemination, with President Donald Trump signing laws in Might that bans nonconsensual on-line publication of AI-generated porn, however federal legislation doesn’t explicitly prohibit private possession, and a district choose dominated in February that possessing such pictures was protected by the First Modification.
After it was rocked by a variety of scandals just like the one enjoying out in Hong Kong, South Korea handed a legislation final 12 months that criminalizes not solely the possession but in addition the consumption of such content material.
Although the College of Hong Kong mentioned that it had undertaken varied steps on behalf of the victims, “together with class changes,” the victims wrote within the letter that the college’s inaction had resulted in them being pressured to share the classroom with the suspect “not less than 4 instances, inflicting pointless psychological misery.”
Outrage has since grown within the wider scholar group, which has demanded extra stringent motion. That prompted a response from town’s prime official, Chief Government John Lee, who mentioned at a information briefing Tuesday that universities have the “duty of creating college students’ ethical character,” including establishments ought to “take care of scholar misconduct significantly.”
“Any conduct that causes hurt to others could represent a prison offense and may infringe particular person rights and likewise privateness,” he mentioned.
The college didn’t reply to a request for remark from NBC Information, nevertheless it advised the South China Morning Submit this week that it was conducting a assessment of the incident and vowed additional motion if victims demanded extra.
“The college is now additional reviewing the case and can take additional actions when acceptable to make sure a protected and respectful studying atmosphere,” it mentioned.
