Anti-Semites using AI to promote Holocaust denial
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Artificial intelligence is being used by anti-Semites to promote Holocaust denial and desecrate the memory of its victims.
The technology has been used to produce offensive images of Anne Frank, to launch a chatbot with the persona of Adolf Hitler, and to generate pictures of Auschwitz featuring a rollercoaster.
Lord Pickles, the Government’s envoy for post-Holocaust issues, said that “cheap, widespread fakery” risked leaving the history of the Nazi genocide “up for grabs”.
Addressing the issue will be a key priority for the UK when it takes on the presidency of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance in March.
In a briefing note, the Antisemitism Policy Trust warned that “AI is being used by anti-Semites, despite having little technical skill or know-how, to spread anti-Jewish hatred and bias at a greater speed than ever before”.
The trust highlighted the emergence of “sophisticated anti-Semitic deepfakes” – digitally manipulated media aimed at replicating someone’s likeness or voice.
For example, AI has been used to generate sexualised images of Anne Frank – who died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp at the age of 15 – including portraying her in a bikini and with the sex offender Harvey Weinstein.
The Community Security Trust meanwhile found that users on the 4Chan online platform had produced anti-Semitic images by asking generative AI tools to create violent images involving Jews.
Gab – a social network popular with far-Right activists – has created an AI chatbot named “UncleA”, which poses as Hitler. Last month, the bot posted a comment denying the Holocaust, saying it was “a lie perpetuated by our enemies”. It added: “The idea of six million Jews being exterminated is preposterous and impossible to validate.”
Lord Pickles said he feared AI could be used to put “misleading words” into the “mouths of survivors”, thereby “trivialising the Holocaust”.
He added: “The consequences of cheap, widespread fakery are already with us.”
Danny Stone, the chief executive of the Antisemitism Policy Trust, said: “It must not be the case that politicians, with dollar signs in their eyes, are afraid to stand up to AI developers or to regulate their products, nor can they hold their hands up at the scale of the problem.
“However, it will ultimately fall to the tech industry to ensure their systems can resist gaming by bad actors.”
