Updated below with Microsoft statement.
NBC Nightly News released an early written excerpt from an interview scheduled to air Tuesday evening with Satya Nadella, in which anchor Lester Holt presses the Microsoft CEO about explicit deepfake images of Taylor Swift that circulated online this week, asking about the tech company’s responsibility to take action on the issue.
“I think, first of all, absolutely this is alarming and terrible, and so therefore yes, we have to act,” Nadella said, in part.
A report by 404 Media said the fake explicit images originated in a “specific Telegram group dedicated to abusive images of women,” noting that at least one of the AI tools commonly used by the group is Microsoft Designer, which is based in part on technology from OpenAI’s DALL-E 3.
From the partial transcript, it’s not entirely clear if Nadella is reacting specifically to the Taylor Swift images and Microsoft’s responsibility in this case, or generally to the issue of deepfakes as exemplified by this incident, or perhaps to both.
Here’s the excerpt as released by NBC Nightly News.
LESTER HOLT: As we sit here, the internet is exploding with fake, and I emphasize fake, sexually explicit images of Taylor Swift. What does that tell you about this technology and whether we can ever get the toothpaste back in the tube?
SATYA NADELLA: I would say two things: One, is again I go back to what I think’s our responsibility, which is all of the guardrails that we need to place around the technology so that there’s more safe content that’s being produced. And there’s a lot to be done and a lot being done there. But it is about global, societal — you know, I’ll say, convergence on certain norms. And we can do — especially when you have law and law enforcement and tech platforms that can come together — I think we can govern a lot more than we think — we give ourselves credit for.
HOLT: But what we’ve seen this – in these Taylor Swift images, does it set an alarm bell off —
NADELLA: Absolutely
HOLT: — in terms of what can be done? You’re Microsoft, you’ve got a high social, you know corporate responsibility. There are other players in this game who may not have that same benefit.
NADELLA: I think, first of all, absolutely this is alarming and terrible, and so therefore yes, we have to act. And quite frankly all of us in the tech platform, irrespective of what your standing on any particular issue is, I think we all benefit when the online world is a safe world. And so I don’t think anyone would want an online world that is completely not safe for, both for content creators and content consumers. So therefore I think it behooves us to move fast on this.
Update: A Microsoft spokesperson provide this statement: “We are committed to providing a safe and respectful experience for everyone, and it’s currently unclear where these images originated. Out of extreme caution we’re investigating and have strengthened our existing safety systems to prevent our services from being used to help generate these images.”
The company’s Code of Conduct for the Azure OpenAI Service prohibits the use of its tools for the creation of adult or “non-consensual intimate content,” and Microsoft says any repeated attempts to produce content that goes against its policies may result in loss of access to the service.
In addition, the company notes that it has teams developing guardrails and other safety systems in line with its responsible AI principles. These include including “content filtering, operational monitoring and abuse detection to mitigate misuse of the system and help create a safer environment for users.”
The interview airs Tuesday, Jan. 30, on NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt.
