Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have hit out at Elon Musk for trying to "stop" an artificial intelligence (AI) "nudification" law from passing. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex's charitable foundation Archewell Philanthropies published a statement on its website praising Minnesota's decision to outlaw AI nudification applications this week, after the decision passed the state Senate with a unanimous 65-0 vote.
They described it as landmark legislation and "an example of leadership fit for the digital age: a bi-partisan decision to stop technology from enabling predatory behaviour disproportionately targeting women and children".
Archewell takes aim at big tech
The Archewell spokesperson also took a shot at "big tech", accusing major firms of "taking shocking steps to limit restrictions on or accountability for these objectively predatory AI product features". They singled out Mr Musk's Grok AI, part of his X social media company, noting that the "trillionaire" had "sued the state of Minnesota to stop the law from going into place".
The spokesperson accused companies like X of "mitigating risk to their bottom line instead of aggressively responding to the clear evidence their product features are enabling predators to prey on women and children". "Nudification" applications use generative AI to produce deepfake nude images of real people, often without their consent.
Meghan's earlier warning
It's not the first time the couple have spoken out about online dangers for children, with the Duchess of Sussex warning that it amounted to a "public health issue" earlier this year.
She told global leaders at a memorial for those who died after suffering digital harm that children are "being shaped by systems designed to capture attention at any cost", creating "endless exposure to harmful content they are not seeking out". Meghan added that technologies such as AI are "not just repeating past mistakes" but "accelerating and amplifying them".
"We are seeing new forms of harm emerge faster than our systems are prepared to respond, affecting children at alarming scale and across borders," she said. "But these outcomes are not inevitable, and prevention begins with one simple principle: children must be safe by design, not safe by chance."
