Midjourney to ban Biden, Trump images ahead of 2024 US elections fearing AI-generated misinformation

As the US prepares for the 2024 election, Midjourney CEO David Holz plans to implement a restriction on AI-generated political pictures, especially those portraying President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.

As the United States prepares for the approaching election season, Midjourney, a popular platform for creating AI-generated photos, is considering banning AI-generated political images, especially those that include President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.

The purpose of the action is to avoid any potential disputes and improper use of the platform at this politically sensitive time.

Midjourney's CEO, David Holz, discussed the company's discussions at a recent session on the internet chat app Discord. Holz raised issues with political discourse on the platform, particularly in the context of an election campaign when tensions are higher than usual.

Holz acknowledged the allure of producing photographs including political individuals, but she also raised the idea of temporarily banning such content in order to preserve her impartiality over the election season.

The review is being conducted in the context of larger industry-wide initiatives within the digital sector to curb the dissemination of false information and stop platforms from being used for political gain.

Other CEOs have expressed concerns and taken action to prevent the spread of false information, including deepfakes produced by AI. Examples of these CEOs are Mustafa Suleyman of Inflection AI and Sam Altman of OpenAI.

Although Midjourney has community guidelines in place to prevent the creation of misleading or damaging pictures, there are still worries about users getting around these limitations.

According to Holz, if the proposed prohibition on political images is put into effect, it might not be made public, highlighting the company's careful handling of sensitive material.

Experts warn that excluding particular political actors from image-generation platforms could just be a short-term fix. Expert in digital forensics Hany Farid feels that while these steps could solve short-term issues, they don't deal with the bigger problem of political misinformation.

People could manage to get around limits even in the face of platform security measures, which would continue the dissemination of false information.

Finding a balance between protecting free speech and limiting the usage of AI-generated material for malicious reasons is still a difficulty faced by Midjourney and other platforms as they negotiate the complexity of content management and political sensitivities.

Ai Generated Images Donald Trump Midjourney Ai President Joe Biden