Campaigners from Stop Image-Based Abuse delivered a petition to Downing Street calling for greater protection against deepfake image abuse. Campaigners from Stop Image-Based Abuse delivered a petition to Downing Street calling for greater protection against deepfake image abuse. Victims of deepfake image abuse have called for stronger protection against AI-generated explicit images, as the law criminalising the creation of non-consensual intimate images comes into effect. Campaigners from Stop Image-Based Abuse delivered a petition to Downing Street with more than 73,000 signatures, urging the government to introduce civil routes to justice such as takedown orders for abusive imagery on platforms and devices. "Today's a really momentous day," said Jodie, a victim of deepfake abuse who uses a pseudonym.

It began with an anonymous email. "I'm genuinely so, so sorry to reach out to you," it read. Beneath the words were three links to an internet forum. "Huge trigger warning … They contain lewd photoshopped images of you." Jodie (not her real name) froze.

Impersonating someone is hardly a revolutionary type of fraud, but this summer Patrick Hillmann, chief communications officer at cryptocurrency exchange Binance, found himself victim of a new approach to spoofing – using an artificial intelligence (AI) generated video also known as a deepfake. In August, Hillmann, who has been with the company for two years, received several online messages from people claiming that he had met with them regarding "potential opportunities to list their assets in Binance" – something he found odd because he didn't have oversight of Binance's listings. Moreover, the executive said, he had never met with any of the people who were messaging him. In a company blog post, Hillmann claimed that cybercriminals had set up Zoom calls with people via a fake LinkedIn profile, and used his previous news interviews and TV appearances to create a deepfake of him to participate in the calls. He described it as "refined enough to fool several highly intelligent crypto community members."