Cheerful African American Student Girl Using Mobile Phone Texting And Learning In Educational Application Standing Outside Near College Building. New App For Your Cellphone Concept
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The technology is simply frightening.
Upload a photo, wait a few seconds, and then an app generates a fake nude image convincing enough to humiliate a classmate, extort an ex-partner, derail a career, or spread across the internet before the victim even knows it exists.
No camera, no consent, and no crime scene for the police to investigate. Just artificial intelligence weaponized against another human being.
For generations, Americans have debated consumer protection through the lens of defective products, predatory lenders, unsafe food, and identity theft. But artificial intelligence is forcing us to expand that definition. Today’s most dangerous consumer products may not be something we buy at a store. Instead, they’re apps that can digitally strip a person naked with a single click.
For Black Americans, this technology lands on centuries-old fault lines, ones that have come under recent attacks from state, federal and local lawmakers who are working to upend the accurate telling of history.
From enslavement to minstrel shows, from unauthorized medical experimentation to modern surveillance technologies, Black bodies have repeatedly been treated as flattened commodities, rather than those deserving autonomy and dignity.
AI-powered “nudify” applications are not inventing exploitation. They are industrializing it. This technology has simply become faster, cheaper, and infinitely more scalable.
That is why this conversation is about far more than celebrity deepfakes or viral internet hoaxes. It is about whether our consumer protection laws are prepared for an economy where someone’s image—perhaps their most personal possession—can be manipulated, monetized, and distributed without permission.
For Black women and girls, AI doesn’t create a new form of abuse–it just supercharges what already exists. Years of research have shown that Black women experience some of the highest rates of racialized and gendered harassment online. Amnesty International found Black women were 84% more likely than white women to receive abusive or hostile messages on social media.
Add generative AI to that equation, and harassment no longer requires a keyboard and a cruel comment. It can now produce a realistic fake nude in seconds.
According to Mercy Fash and Emani Campbell’s emerging scholarly research at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, this intersection is worthy of greater attention because of an exacerbated threat that could severely harm Black women.
“Research indicates that a vast portion of deepfake content involves nonconsensual imagery targeting women,” Fash and Campbell said in their abstract. “Black women may face severe harm due to the intersection of race and gender that shapes their experiences in digital spaces.”
Not acting fast enough, lawmakers on Capitol Hill have heard this call, and there has been a response.
The federal TAKE IT DOWN Act creates a pathway for victims to compel online platforms to remove non-consensual intimate imagery, including AI-generated content. It acknowledges a simple truth: the speed of removal matters almost as much as the speed of creation. A photograph that remains online for days—or even hours—can be copied thousands of times.
WASHINGTON, DC – JUNE 18: Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) (C), accompanied by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) (L) speaks at a news conference to unveil the Take It Down Act to protect victims against non-consensual intimate image abuse, on Capitol Hill on June 18, 2024 in Washington, DC. Cruz introduced the bipartisan “Tools to Address Known Exploitation by Immobilizing Technological Deepfakes on Websites and Networks Act” (TAKE IT DOWN) which would criminalize the publication of non-consensual intimate imagery and require social media sites to remove nefarious imagery if it is flagged by a victim. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
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But removal alone cannot be the national strategy.
Technology companies have also begun developing tools to combat this growing threat. Meta has partnered with organizations like the Tech Coalition and StopNCII.org to remove non-consensual content from its platforms and help victims prevent the spread of intimate images.
In a recent Newsweek op-ed, Cindy Southworth, Meta’s head of women’s safety, argued that combating AI-generated intimate imagery requires far more than a “one-and-done solution.” She outlined a strategy that combines stronger detection technology, survivor support, cross-industry collaboration, and partnerships with law enforcement.
“The entire industry is thinking about new, innovative ways to identify and take down this type of content,” wrote Southworth, former executive vice president of the National Network to End Domestic Violence.
Southworth emphasized that technology companies must also “build and strengthen prevention and reporting tools for survivors; collaborate with other companies and nonprofits; and support law enforcement in their efforts to hold criminals accountable.”
These efforts deserve recognition because they acknowledge that protecting consumers is not simply a content moderation challenge, but one involving an ecosystem.
“Behind every malicious website that creates nudify content, there are teams of highly motivated bad actors,” Southworth noted. “They spend days looking for loopholes and testing ways to circumvent rules and policies, and they adapt their tactics as defenses get stronger.”
That’s precisely why voluntary action by individual companies, while necessary, cannot be the entire answer. The speed and sophistication of AI-generated abuse demand industry cooperation backed by meaningful public policy.
No single platform can regulate an entire marketplace of AI applications that often operate anonymously or overseas. That’s why the United States should look closely at Europe.
Across the European Union, lawmakers have adopted a more aggressive posture toward regulating digital platforms, particularly where children are involved. Stronger privacy protections, risk assessment for AI systems, transparency requirements, and increased scrutiny over how platforms protect minors all reflect a governing philosophy that asks an important question: What responsibility does technology have before harm occurs—not simply after?
As the wise saying goes, “prevention is better than cure,” and for America, a prevention framework has historically been embraced in every other consumer marketplace. The U.S. regulates automobiles before they reach consumers. They inspect pharmaceuticals before they reach pharmacy shelves. And, they require warning labels, safety standards, and recalls because waiting until millions of people are harmed is unacceptable.
Artificial intelligence deserves no less.
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS – OCTOBER 22: Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) (L) and American Federation of Teachers (AFT) president Randi Weingarten visit with striking Chicago teachers at Oscar DePriest Elementary School on October 22, 2019 in Chicago, Illinois. About 25,000 Chicago school teachers went on strike last week after the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) failed to reach a contract agreement with the city. With about 300,000 students, Chicago has the third largest public school system in the nation. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
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America’s classrooms are beginning to recognize this reality as well. American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten recently called for limits on AI and excessive screen time in schools, arguing that educators must help students navigate technology responsibly rather than simply reacting to its consequences.
“I am not calling for an AI ban or a Chromebook bonfire,” Weingarten said at the National Press Club in May. “What I am calling for is getting the balance right to harness the benefits of technology while mitigating the harms.”
That conversation should include digital consent, synthetic media literacy, and understanding that creating a fake intimate image is not a harmless prank—it is an act with profound emotional, educational, and economic consequences.
Consumer protection has always evolved alongside innovation, and artificial intelligence presents the next great challenge. The question is whether our laws will evolve as quickly as the technology, because beneath every AI-generated fake is a real person whose dignity has been stolen.
For Black Americans, whose bodies have too often been exploited throughout history, this technology is not merely another digital inconvenience.
It is the latest chapter in a much older story. This time, however, we have the opportunity to write a different ending—one where innovation is matched by accountability, where consumer protection includes our digital identities, and where no one’s body becomes just another product in the AI economy.