UK Watchdog Bans AI Ads Over Sexualised Depictions of Women

The UK advertising regulator has banned five advertisements for AI tools after finding that they depicted women irresponsibly and could contribute to serious or widespread offences.

The advertisements were identified through the regulator’s AI-powered Active Ad Monitoring System, which searches for ads that may breach UK advertising rules.

AI companion ad featured sexualised under-18 imagery

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said one advertisement for an AI companion generator developed by Animcha Ltd depicted a person under the age of 18 in a sexual manner.

The ad showed a synthetic female character whom users could “customize” and direct. The ASA said it combined sexual imagery with childish clothing and objects.

Nexaipic ads encouraged users to create explicit images

Two advertisements for Nexaipic, an AI portrait generation tool, used sexually explicit videos to encourage users to “upload anyone you like and let the AI create what you imagine.”

AI image-to-video ad showed a woman transformed into a topless video

An advertisement for an AI image-to-video generation app, identified only as KH31 DD22, depicted a clothed woman being transformed into a topless video.

The watchdog said the ad suggested the app could be used to create content that exposes women’s bodies.

Rusto AI and PictoPop ads also used sexual imagery

Advertisements for Rusto AI, an image-generation tool, encouraged users to create sexual videos from photographs. The ads appeared to allow images of women to be digitally manipulated into sexually explicit content.

An advertisement for PictoPop, an app that generates videos from AI images, also used sexually explicit images to demonstrate the tool, including one depicting a woman in a submissive position.

The ASA said none of the app creators responded to its inquiries.