Imagine:
You’re chatting with your friends on Instagram, looking to make some plans for the weekend. Suddenly one of them sends a jarring picture in the group chat:
“Is this you?” your friend asks. “Someone just sent it to me on Snapchat.”
Your heart falls to your stomach. The photo is of you kissing a boy from school. But you’ve never kissed him before.
Your mind is racing: How is this possible?
It makes you feel violated just looking at it. Even worse is the knowledge that other people have seen it, and might think it’s real. How many people have seen it?
AI kissing apps have made scenarios like this one a disturbing reality. While on the surface, it may seem like harmless teen shenanigans, nothing more than an innocent kiss, these actions are still a grave violation of sexual boundaries.
What are AI Kissing and Hugging Apps?
A recent Forbes article describes AI kissing apps as “taking deepfakes mainstream.” The word “deepfake” is used to refer to a type of forgery in which AI is used to manipulate a person’s image and depict them doing acts they in fact have never done. Mainstream social media platforms are being ‘flooded’ with ads for AI Kissing and Hugging apps. These apps enable and proliferate the creation of sexualized imagery according to the desire of the user, without the consent of the person depicted.
AI Kissing and Hugging apps are software tools which use artificial intelligence to create highly realistic animations of two individuals kissing or hugging from uploaded photos. They enable the generation of romantic or even explicit content based on facial detection and recognition technologies, motion synthesis, and 3D modeling and animation.
Why is This a Problem?
AI Kissing Apps are a severe violation of someone’s boundaries in the same way that forcibly kissing someone in real life would be. Some shrug off the harms of these kinds of deepfakes, because they are not sexually explicit. But as NCOSE’s Senior VP of Strategic Initiatives and Programs, Haley McNamara, stated:
“It does not have to be explicit to be exploitative… If it’s crossing boundaries to do something offline to someone without their consent, kissing, undressing, et cetera, then it’s also crossing boundaries to do that online.”
Many advertisements for AI Kissing and Hugging apps specifically highlight lack of consent as an appealing feature, with language like “kiss anyone you want,” “kiss your ex”, “kiss your crush.” This fuels a culture of sexual entitlement and sexual violence.
The Widespread Availability AI Kissing and Hugging Apps
NCOSE researchers conducted a study of AI Kiss and AI Hug apps available on Google Play and the Apple App Store. It was found that these apps are widely available and marketed as fun, easy, and meant for everyone. Considerable resources are spent to advertise these apps on mainstream social media platforms.
Concerningly, NCOSE researchers found no consistency in the age ratings. Some apps were marketed for 17+ or ‘Mature’ audiences, and many were marketed for 4+ or ‘Everyone.’ This means that a 4-year-old (or, in reality, a child even younger) can download and access these apps.
The easy availability of these apps, including to children, normalizes deepfake technology without content moderation or adequate safeguards.
The prolific nature of these apps is deeply concerning, and it is even more troubling that Apple, TikTok, Meta, and Android allow them on their platforms. We must call on tech companies to create and enforce better policies around AI safety!
