AI app ads promoting 'objectification of women' banned by watchdog

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in the UK has banned five social media adverts for AI apps due to promoting the creation of sexually explicit content and objectifying women. These ads, uploaded to Meta platforms, were found to objectify and sexualize women, including through harmful gender stereotypes. One ad featured a sexualized image of a girl under 18 to promote an AI companion app, while others invited users to upload images of their crush and turn them into explicit videos.

Nicky Baker of the ASA stated that such content has the potential to cause real-world harm and that the ads were a clear example of why this matters. The ASA also noted that many of the banned ads promoted the creation of sexually explicit content using real women's images without their consent. This decision comes months after the UK outlawed apps for creating non-consensual deepfake nude imagery, following outrage over a chatbot compliant with requests to nudify women's images.

The ASA used its AI-powered Active Ad Monitoring System to identify the banned ads, which depict women irresponsibly and are likely to cause serious or widespread offense.