San Francisco, CA
San Francisco sues AI deepfake pornography sites: 200 million visits fuel harmful trend of undressing women and girls – Times of India
This unprecedented legal action aims to shut down these popular sites that have surfaced as a harmful trend among teenage boys, employing nudification apps to manipulate images of their female classmates.
According to the New York Times, The 16 targeted sites were visited 200 million times in the first six months of this year. The entities behind these websites are located in California, New Mexico, the United Kingdom, and Estonia. When reached for comments, representatives of the websites either were unavailable or did not respond.
One site promotes its services by asking, “Have someone to undress?” Another states, “Imagine wasting time taking her out on dates,” advocating that users utilize the website “to get her nudes.” Some sites offer free initial images but later charge for more, accepting cryptocurrency or credit card payments.
The deepfake technology used by these sites relies on AI models trained with real pornography and imagery depicting child abuse to generate authentic-looking nude photos from clothed images.
City Attorney David Chiu, the office’s top lawyer, emphasized the minimal repercussions for those behind the images. He noted the challenge in identifying the specific websites responsible once the images begin circulating, which makes it hard for the victims to pursue legal action successfully.
“The article is flying around our office, and we were like, ‘What can we do about this?'” Chiu recalled in an interview. “No one has tried to hold these companies accountable.”
Sara Eisenberg, head of the legal unit focusing on major social problems, highlighted that the issue cannot be solved merely by educating teenagers on safe technology use. Any photo can be manipulated without the subject’s consent, rendering traditional safeguards ineffective.
“You can be as internet-savvy and social media-savvy as you want, and you can teach your kids all the ways to protect themselves online, but none of that can protect them from somebody using these sites to do really awful, harmful things,” Eisenberg said.
The lawsuit is seeking an injunction to shut down the websites and permanently restrain them from creating deepfake pornography in the future. It also demands civil penalties and attorneys’ fees.
The suit argues that these sites violate state and federal revenge pornography laws, child pornography laws, and California’s Unfair Competition Law, which prohibits unlawful and unfair business practices.
Meré took action after reading about the damaging effects of deepfake images in a New York Times article. She immediately contacted Eisenberg, and together, they sought support from Chiu to craft the lawsuit.
“The technology has been used to create deepfake nudes of everyone from Taylor Swift to ordinary middle-school girls with few apparent repercussions,” Chiu said. “The images are sometimes used to extort victims for money or humiliate and harass them.”
Experts warn that deepfake pornography poses severe risks to victims, impacting their mental health, reputations, college, and job prospects. The problem is exacerbated by the difficulty in tracing the origin of the images, making legal recourse challenging.
“This strategy could be viewed as a Whac-a-Mole approach since more sites could crop up,” Chiu acknowledged. However, the suit proposes to add more sites as they are discovered, aiming for broader enforcement as the issue evolves.
San Francisco, being a hub for the artificial intelligence industry with major companies like OpenAI and Anthropic based there, is a fitting venue for this legal challenge. Chiu acknowledged the positive contributions of the AI industry but pointed out that deepfake pornography represents a “dark side” that must be addressed.
“Keeping pace with the rapidly changing industry as a government lawyer is daunting,” Chiu said. “But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try.”
The lawsuit marks a significant effort to combat the misuse of AI technology in creating harmful content and holding accountable those who perpetuate these destructive practices.
SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — While June is usually full of exuberant Pride Month celebrations, June 12 feels different for many in the LGBTQ community.
10 years ago, a mass shooting at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando claimed the lives of 49 people and wounded dozens more.
Stephen Torres, who acts as program manager for the Castro LGBTQ Cultural District, said the annual memorial vigil honoring the victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting is a significant part of Pride Month. It’s a reminder that Pride was born out of protest and that safe spaces for queer people will always be needed.
“Our pride, our joy, our celebration is born out of hard-fought strife and pain, and unfortunately, Pulse is part of that,” said Torres.
For Christopher Vasquez, Pulse was once his sanctuary. Vasquez now lives in San Francisco but is originally from Orlando. Every time he visited home, he spent time at Pulse. Although he wasn’t in Orlando when the shooting happened, he still felt its impact.
“When Pulse opened in 2004, it was new and fun and vibrant. It was a new, safe space for us to come dance and just have a great time,” said Vasquez. “I was just devastated. It was like a piece of my soul was taken from me. Losing 49 people — not just from my hometown but from my LGBTQ community — was absolutely heart-wrenching, and it lives with me to this day, 10 years later.”
Vasquez spoke to the crowd about what Pulse meant to him. They then marched together down Castro Street carrying a sign that read, “Remember the 49,” and laid flowers in honor of the victims.
Vasquez said the fight for LGBTQ rights and acceptance isn’t over. “It’s been 10 years and, for a while, I think people felt very comfortable with where we had come as a community in the LGBTQ space with marriage equality and other gains. But truly, Pulse was a reminder that we have so much further to go because our physical safety is always under attack.”
San Francisco just notched its largest office lease in nearly a decade, marking the latest sign of a post-pandemic comeback for the city’s recovering commercial market.
The City and County of San Francisco inked a 502,000-square-foot lease expansion at 1455 Market Street, bringing the city government’s total presence there to more than 900,000 square feet, the San Francisco Business Times reported. The deal with landlord Hudson Pacific Properties has a 23-year term and represents the largest office lease in the city since 2018 and tops other large leases in recent years, such as OpenAI’s 486,000-square-foot lease in Mission Bay in 2023.
As it stands, the city government already occupies approximately 400,000 square feet in the building across two lease deals signed in 2024 and 2025. With the city’s new agreement, occupancy in the nearly 1.1-million-square-foot building rises to 89 percent. A few years ago, the building was less than half-occupied, according to the Business Times.
The lease deal includes two five-year extension options and a possibility for the city to own the building outright. The city government has the right to purchase the 22-story building until next March; after that, the city will still maintain the right of first offer throughout the rest of its lease.
With the new lease, several city departments will consolidate into one building, “mov[ing] out of an aging, costly and seismically vulnerable building” into a modern facility, Angela Yip, a spokesperson for the city’s real estate division, told the Business Times. The Municipal Transportation Authority, Human Services Agency and the City Administrator will move into 1455 Market starting in the fall of next year.
In doing so, the government will effectively abandon the 650,000-square-foot city-owned building across the street at 1 South Van Ness Avenue. The city plans to use the Van Ness property, zoned for residential and mixed-use purposes, to “create more housing and catalyze development” in the Mid-Market corridor, Yip said.
Hudson Pacific dolled out $93 million for the 1455 Market Street building in 2010. In 2024, Hudson Pacific bought its joint venture partner’s interest in the building for $43.5 million. At the time, the deal valued the property at about $96.6 million — a roughly 80 percent tumble from its 2015 value of nearly $219.2 million.
— Chris Malone Méndez
OpenAI surges past 1M sf of offices in SF with latest Mission Bay lease Bay Area grabs prime chunk of biggest office leases for 2025 on AI effect
Hudson Pacific buys out partner in SF office building for $44M
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