According to the survey, one in four people are unimpressed by sexual deepfakes created without consent

According to a police-commissioned survey, one in four people believe there is nothing wrong with creating and sharing sexual deepfakes, or feel neutral about it, even if the person depicted has not consented.

The findings prompted a senior police official to warn that the use of AI is accelerating an epidemic of violence against women and girls (VAWG) and that tech companies are complicit in this abuse.

The survey of 1,700 people, commissioned by the Office of the Police Chief Scientific Adviser, found that 13% believed there was nothing wrong with creating and sharing sexual or intimate deepfakes – digitally altered content created using AI without consent.

Another 12% were neutral about the moral and legal acceptability of producing and sharing such deepfakes.

Det Ch Supt Claire Hammond, from the National Center for VAWG and Public Protection, reminded the public that “sharing intimate images of someone without their consent, whether they are real images or not, is deeply….”