Artificial intelligence image-generator Midjourney has implemented a temporary policy to block users from creating fake images of President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump in an effort to combat election misinformation. Midjourney CEO David Holz announced the policy change during a digital office hours event, stating that the moderation of content is challenging but necessary to prevent abuse of the tool. The company has not provided specific details about the policy changes. When tested by Associated Press journalists, the tool issued warnings and alerts when asked to generate images of Trump and Biden. Midjourney, with just 11 employees, did not join a voluntary tech industry pact in February to combat AI-generated deepfakes. According to a report by the Center for Countering Digital Hate, Midjourney is being used to produce images that support disinformation about political candidates or false claims of election fraud. The report found that Midjourney performed the worst among similar AI image generators, creating election disinformation in 65% of cases. Holz stated that while he doesn’t care about political speech, he does not want to spend all his time policing it. Midjourney’s public database revealed that users were recently able to generate images of Biden and Trump, but the policy change prevented further generation of those images. Midjourney differs from other image-generators as users can see other users' prompts and images on the social media platform Discord. The company’s Discord group has over 19 million members, the largest on the platform. Holz warned that by 2028, the world will be different, with candidates using “deepfake chatbots” with simulated talking points. However, he also cautioned that those who want to create deepfakes will find alternatives that can work better than current systems. Founded in 2020 and based near San Francisco, Midjourney describes itself as an independent research lab exploring new mediums of thought and expanding the imaginative powers of the human species.
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