AI: “Nudify” Apps

Baroness Foster of Aghadrumsee Excerpts

Tuesday 13th February 2024 Lords Chamber

[Viscount Camrose (Con)]

As the noble Lord said, it is a fast-moving space, and that requires an adaptive, agile response in legislating for it. That is the approach that we are taking. As to the argument that we can now see that it is not working, I am not sure that that is the case. The intimate image abuse offences commenced on 31 January—two weeks ago. I am pleased to see that, yesterday, we had our first cyberflashing conviction under those provisions. Using an evidence base, looking forward, we will have to consider carefully what is working before we go ahead and implement further bans.

[Baroness Foster of Aghadrumsee (Non-Afl)]

My Lords, during the last Assembly election in Northern Ireland, two female candidates from either side of the community in Northern Ireland were targeted with deepfake porn, which was solely designed to damage their chances in that election. We know the number of people who will be going to the polls in the next year. Surely the Minister and the Government need to work with the Electoral Commission to raise this issue, because it is a very important issue in democracy for female candidates.

[Viscount Camrose (Con)]

I absolutely agree, and the instance that the noble Baroness described is deplorable. I am pleased to say two things very briefly. First, the sharing she describes now carries, as a base offence, up to six months in prison; if, as in the case the noble Baroness put forward, the sharing is designed for the purposes of malice or gaining sexual gratification, that sentence goes up to two years. That regime is now live. On elections, we have set up the Defending Democracy Taskforce, with a new unit implemented last year specifically dedicated to safeguarding the election against such threats.