Google Cracks Down on AI Deepfakes: Search Results to Be Purged!

In Brief:

Google is enhancing its measures to remove and demote websites containing unauthorized AI-generated deepfakes from search results.

The company will filter explicit results involving the names of impersonated individuals and demote sites with high volumes of removal requests.

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Google's New Policy Targets Deepfake Sites, Demotes Illicit Content!

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In its latest bid to curb unauthorized AI-generated deepfakes, Google is taking new steps to remove and demote websites in searches that have been reported to contain illicit images, the technology and search giant said on Wednesday.

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An AI deepfake is media created using generative AI to produce videos, pictures, or audio clips that appear real. Many of these fake images depict celebrities like actress Scarlett Johansson, politicians like U.S. President Joe Biden, and, more insidiously, children.

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Enhanced Measures for Deepfake Removal

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“For many years, people have been able to request the removal of non-consensual fake explicit imagery from Search under our policies,”

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Google said in a blog post.

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“We’ve now developed systems to make the process easier, helping people address this issue at scale.”

Such reports, a Google spokesperson further explained to Decrypt, will affect the visibility of a site in its search results.

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“If we receive a high volume of removal requests from a site, under this policy, that's going to be used as a signal to our ranking systems that that site is not a high-quality site—we'll incorporate that in our ranking system to demote the site,”

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the spokesperson said.

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Filtering and Demotion of Explicit Results

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With Google’s new update, when a request to remove non-consensual deepfake websites found in a search is received, Google will also work to filter similar search results that include the name of the person being impersonated.

“What that means is that when you remove a result from search under our policies, in addition, what we'll do is on any query that includes your name—or would be likely to surface that page from search—all explicit results will be filtered,”

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the spokesperson said. In addition to filtering its search results, Google said it will demote sites that have received a “high volume of removals for fake explicit imagery.”

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Balancing Legitimate Content and Deepfake Detection

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“These protections have already proven to be successful in addressing other types of non-consensual imagery, and we've now built the same capabilities for fake explicit images as well,” Google said.

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A challenge of the new policy, Google acknowledged, is making sure that consensual or “real content,” like nude scenes in a film, are not taken down along with the illegal AI deepfakes.

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“While differentiating between this content is a technical challenge for search engines, we're making ongoing improvements to better surface legitimate content and downrank explicit fake content,”

Google said.

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Industry and Legal Implications

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In regards to CSAM, the Google spokesperson said the company takes this subject very seriously and has dedicated an entire team specially to combat this illegal content.

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"We have hashing technologies, where we have the ability technologically to detect CSAM proactively,"

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the spokesperson said.

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"That's something that's sort of an industry-wide standard, and we're able to block it from appearing in search."

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As Google works to remove and make deepfake websites harder to find, deepfake experts like Ben Clayton, CEO of audio forensics firm Media Medic, say the threat will remain as technology evolves.

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Policymakers and Industry Leaders Respond

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Policymakers have also taken steps to combat deepfakes. In July, Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., introduced the Content Origin Protection and Integrity from Edited and Deepfaked Media (COPIED) Act, which called for a standardized method of watermarking AI-generated content.

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Entertainment industry leaders and technology companies celebrated Google’s update to its policy. “The No Fakes Act is supported by the entire entertainment industry landscape, from studios and major record labels to unions and artist advocacy groups,” SAG-AFTRA said in a statement applauding the measure.