Dung Hoang/theispot.com
The digital age has vastly expanded access to explicit content, and generative AI now enables users to create explicit images with alarming ease. Governments and the U.N. warn about the rise of illegal AI-generated deepfakes, particularly those involving minors. Despite these concerns, some tech leaders, like OpenAI’s Sam Altman, have considered integrating adult content features into AI tools.
Our research investigates how AI-generated explicit content affects offline sexual crime, using Japan as a case study due to its detailed public crime data. Following the mid-2023 launch of ChatGPT’s mobile app and improvements in AI image generation, Japan saw a significant rise in reported rape cases, increasing from an average of 148 to 265 per month. This rise surpassed other violent crimes such as murder, suggesting a specific link to sexually motivated offenses.
Analysis of activity on a major Japanese online art community revealed that peaks in engagement with AI-generated adult images correlated with increases in rape cases, especially those involving minors. The findings suggest a disturbing connection between AI-generated explicit content and real-world sexual crimes.
While causation cannot be fully proven, the evidence raises serious concerns about the societal impacts of unrestricted AI-generated adult content. Policy measures like watermarking, strict age verification, and enforcement of existing child protection laws could mitigate these risks. The scale of the problem calls for urgent legal reforms and careful consideration from technology companies to prevent facilitating sexual crimes, particularly against minors.
