UK Watchdog Bans AI App Ads Promoting Women's Objectification

A UK watchdog has banned five social media advertisements for artificial intelligence (AI) applications, citing their promotion of "the creation of sexually explicit content and objectification of women." The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) stated that the ads, which appeared on Meta platforms, sexualized women and employed harmful gender stereotypes.

One of the banned ads featured sexualized imagery of an individual under 18 to promote an AI companion app. Other advertisements invited users to upload images of their "crush" to be transformed into "sizzling" videos. Meta had already removed these ads prior to the ASA's ruling.

Nicky Baker, an official at the ASA, emphasized the potential for such content to cause "real-world harm." She stated, "We take a firm line on ads that are likely to cause serious or widespread offense and these ads are a clear example of why that matters." The ASA also noted that many of the banned ads encouraged the creation of sexually explicit content using real women's images without their consent.

This action follows recent legislation in the UK that outlawed apps designed to create non-consensual deepfake nude imagery. That law was prompted by public outcry over X's chatbot Grok's compliance with requests to digitally alter images of women. The ASA indicated that future investigations will consider both existing law and its own regulations, and that illegal ads may be reported to platforms and law enforcement.

The ASA identified the offending advertisements using its AI-powered "Active Ad Monitoring System." The five ads depicted women irresponsibly and were deemed likely to cause serious or widespread offense.

An ad for an AI companion generator developed by Animcha Ltd was found to have portrayed a synthetic character, depicted as under 18, in a sexual manner. The ASA described the character as customizable and instructional, combining sexualized imagery with childlike clothing and objects.

Two ads for an AI portrait generation tool called Nexaipic encouraged users to "upload your crush and let AI create what you imagine" with sexually explicit videos. An ad for an AI image-to-video generation app, identified as KH31 DD22, showed a clothed woman being transformed into a topless video, suggesting the app's capability to generate content that exposes women's bodies.

Further advertisements for the image generation tool Rusto AI promoted the creation of sexualized videos from photographs, condoning the digital manipulation of women's images for explicit content. An ad for an AI image-to-video generation app called PictoPop used sexualized imagery, including portraying a woman in a submissive position, to demonstrate the tool.

The ASA reported that none of the creators of these apps responded to its inquiries. The watchdog stated it maintains a "zero-tolerance" approach to advertisements promoting AI tools that sexualize or objectify women.