--- title: "Taylor Swift Has Threatened Legal Action Over AI and Fake Nudes Before" description: "The controversy surrounding fake AI images of Taylor Swift highlights just how big and long-standing this problem really is." date: "2024-01-26" modified: "2024-01-26" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/ai-taylor-swift-legal-threats" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "ai porn" - "image generators" - "lawsuits" - "taylor swift" --- # Taylor Swift Has Threatened Legal Action Over AI and Fake Nudes Before ![The controversy surrounding fake AI images of Taylor Swift highlights just how big and long-standing this problem really is.]() *\Image: Buda Mendes / TAS23 via Getty / Futurism\* This week, outrage has brewed online over [AI-generated porn images of Taylor Swift]() — and as it turns out, some of the alleged forces behind the disgusting images may have felt threats of the artist's legal wrath before. As [reports]() about the controversy [indicate](), many of the phony Swift nudes that ended up on social media were also uploaded to a site called Celeb Jihad, which has long been a spot for digitally altered images that purport to feature lascivious images of famous women. Back in 2011, when these facsimiles were created by simply photoshopping a celeb's face onto nude photos of other women — all done, of course, without the consent of either — Swift's legal team was said to have threatened Celebrity Jihad posting fake "leaked" topless photos of her. As [*TMZ* reported]() at the time, the artist's lawyers sent the grody website a letter demanding it take down a post titled "Taylor Swift Topless Private Pic Leaked?" saying that it contained "false pornographic images and false 'news.'" Whatever ended up happening between Celeb Jihad and Swift back then seems lost to the ages now, but it wasn't the last time Swift got battle-ready over the alleged misappropriation of her likeness. In a 2019 memoir, Microsoft president Brad Smith described a teachable moment he experienced regarding Swift when the singer's representatives contacted him three years prior, [threatening legal action]() over the company's millennial chatbot named "Tay." These days, [Tay is the stuff of legends](), a pre-ChatGPT exercise in AI chaos where, basically, the publicly available chatbot became really racist, really fast. But as Smith seemed to suggest in his memoir, titled "[Tools and Weapons]()," the takedown request from the superstar may have played a part in the company's, er, [swift kiboshing of the chatbot](). As Smith told it, an attorney representing Swift argued that the "use of the name Tay created a false and misleading association between the popular singer and our chatbot, and that it violated federal and state laws." Just 18 hours later, the Microsoft president explained, Tay was euthanized. Curiously enough, Microsoft also plays into this latest Swift AI debacle, too. As [*404 Media* reported](), creeps on the Telegram channel where many of the offending images seem to have been collaboratively brainstormed advised each other to use, among other tools, Microsoft's free text-to-image generator. While that AI product and the others used by the scum included some guardrails that barred them from using some terms to generate the lewd imagery of Swift, they found and subsequently shared [simple workarounds]() to make it spit out what they wanted. In a statement to *404*, a Microsoft spokesperson said the company is "investigating these reports and are taking appropriate action to address them," citing its [AI user code of conduct]() that prohibits "adult or non-consensual intimate content." It's an expected boilerplate response used to shield companies in these sorts of circumstances — and considering [Swift's litigiousness](), which was echoed in [rumors shared with *Daily Mail*]() about how "furious" she is over the fake AI nudes, covering their asses seems pertinent. **More on awry AI:** [*Man Says Sunglass Hut Used Facial Recognition to Falsely Jail Him, Where He Got Sexually Assaulted*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()