AI image-generator Midjourney blocks images of Joe Biden and Donald Trump as US election looms
- Test requests for a picture of ‘Trump and Biden shaking hands at the beach’ led to a warning, and then to an abuse alert after a second attempt
- Amid concerns over deepfakes and misinformation, CEO David Holz told users it was time to ‘put some foots down’ on election-related issues
The popular artificial intelligence image-generator Midjourney has started blocking its users from creating fake images of President Joe Biden and former president Donald Trump ahead of the coming US presidential election, according to tests of the AI tool by Associated Press.
With the election in full swing, it’s time to “put some foots down on election-related stuff for a bit”, Midjourney CEO David Holz told several hundred members of the service’s devoted userbase in a digital office hours event on Wednesday.
Declaring that “this moderation stuff is kind of hard”, Holz did not outline exactly what policy changes were being made but described the clampdown as a temporary measure to make it harder for people to abuse the tool. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.
Attempts by AP journalists to test Midjourney’s new policy on Wednesday by asking it to make an image of “Trump and Biden shaking hands at the beach” led to a “Banned Prompt Detected” warning. A second attempt escalated the warning to: “You have triggered an abuse alert.”
The tiny company – which has just 11 employees, according to its website – has largely kept silent in the public debate over how generative AI tools could fuel election misinformation around the world.