Middle Schoolers from Beverly Hills Schools have reportedly created and shared AI-generated nude images featuring the faces of other students, prompting an investigation from the city's police department. The Beverly Hills Unified School District informed ABC News that it had received reports from students the previous week regarding the production and distribution of ai-generated photos.
In a note to parents, Beverly Vista Middle School Principal Dr. Kelly Skon, Beverly Hills Unified School District Executive Director of School Safety Mark Mead, and Superintendent of the BHUSD Dr. Michael Bregy stated that staff members had been informed are reportedly doing everything they can to help the impacted parties and stop such incidences.
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This photo illustration created on July 18, 2023, in Washington, DC, shows an advertisement to create AI girls reflected in a public service announcement issued by the FBI regarding malicious actors manipulating photos and videos to create explicit content and sextortion schemes.
The school district claims that AI technology was used to overlay student faces on nude bodies while according to the Beverly Hills Unified School District, individuals at fault will face disciplinary action as it investigates the event in collaboration with the Beverly Hills Police Department.
The school district stated that any student found to be creating, sharing, or in possession of AI-generated images of this kind will face disciplinary actions, including but not limited to, a recommendation for expulsion. It further stated that any criminal offenses will be dealt with to the fullest extent possible under the California Education Code.
The district said in a statement that more victims are being identified and that they are taking all necessary precautions to support those affected and to prevent any further incidents. However, the district did not specify the number of students affected by the AI-generated imagery, the existence of which ABC News has not been able to confirm.
Cases on Problematic AI-Generated Images
In the past few years, there has reportedly been an increase in AI imagery, and parents, educators, and administrators have been more concerned about explicit AI-generated photographs in schools.
Francesca Mani, a 14-year-old student from New Jersey, and her mother Dorota Mani appeared on "Good Morning America" in November of last year following reports that a student at her high school, Westfield High School, had utilized artificial intelligence to produce pictures of the teen and other females in their underwear.
Even the White House responded to AI-generated photos of Taylor Swift last month, and Spanish police issued a warning in October about the growing number of young girls who are being targeted by phony AI-generated photos of themselves in the nude.
Dangers of AI-Generated Images
This latest incident proves to be another reality echoing a study titled "The State of Deepfakes," which reportedly claims 96% of the deep fake videos in a 2019 analysis by Deep Trace were sexual, affecting millions of people worldwide.
To mitigate this issue, the Biden administration is supporting digital watermarks, and Google and Meta use "digital credentials" to identify content produced by AI, raising public awareness and making removal simpler.
Working under the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA) guidelines, OpenAI is creating detection tools such as hidden metadata and visible watermarks. Extra security is offered by specialized platforms like Sensity, which are made to authenticate the source of content.
