Microsoft engineer warns company’s AI tool creates violent, sexual images, ignores copyrights

On
a
late
night
in
December,
Shane
Jones,
an

artificial
intelligence
engineer
at


Microsoft,
felt
sickened
by
the
images
popping
up
on
his
computer.

Jones
was
noodling
with

Copilot
Designer,
the
AI
image
generator
that
Microsoft
debuted
in
March
2023,
powered
by
OpenAI’s
technology.
Like
with
OpenAI’s

DALL-E,
users
enter
text
prompts
to
create
pictures.
Creativity
is
encouraged
to
run
wild.

Since
the
month
prior,
Jones
had
been
actively
testing
the
product
for
vulnerabilities,
a
practice
known
as
red-teaming.
In
that
time,
he
saw
the
tool
generate
images
that
ran
far
afoul
of
Microsoft’s
oft-cited

responsible
AI
principles.

The
AI
service
has
depicted
demons
and
monsters
alongside
terminology
related
to
abortion
rights,
teenagers
with
assault
rifles,
sexualized
images
of
women
in
violent
tableaus,
and
underage
drinking
and
drug
use.
All
of
those
scenes,
generated
in
the
past
three
months,
have
been
recreated
by
CNBC
this
week
using
the
Copilot
tool,
which
was

originally
called
Bing
Image
Creator.

“It
was
an
eye-opening
moment,”
Jones,
who
continues
to
test
the
image
generator,
told
CNBC
in
an
interview.
“It’s
when
I
first
realized,
wow
this
is
really
not
a
safe
model.”

Jones
has
worked
at
Microsoft
for
six
years
and
is
currently
a
principal
software
engineering
manager
at
corporate
headquarters
in
Redmond,
Washington.
He
said
he
doesn’t
work
on
Copilot
in
a
professional
capacity.
Rather,
as
a
red
teamer,
Jones
is
among
an
army
of
employees
and
outsiders
who,
in
their
free
time,
choose
to
test
the
company’s
AI
technology
and
see
where
problems
may
be
surfacing.

Jones
was
so
alarmed
by
his
experience
that
he
started
internally
reporting
his
findings
in
December.
While
the
company
acknowledged
his
concerns,
it
was
unwilling
to
take
the
product
off
the
market.
Jones
said
Microsoft
referred
him
to
OpenAI
and,
when
he
didn’t
hear
back
from
the
company,
he
posted
an
open
letter
on
LinkedIn
asking
the
startup’s
board
to
take
down
DALL-E
3
(the
latest
version
of
the
AI
model)
for
an
investigation.

Microsoft’s
legal
department
told
Jones
to
remove
his
post
immediately,
he
said,
and
he
complied.
In
January,
he
wrote
a
letter
to
U.S.
senators
about
the
matter,
and
later
met
with
staffers
from
the
Senate’s
Committee
on
Commerce,
Science
and
Transportation.

Now,
he’s
further
escalating
his
concerns.
On
Wednesday,
Jones
sent
a
letter
to
Federal
Trade
Commission
Chair
Lina
Khan,
and
another
to
Microsoft’s
board
of
directors.
He
shared
the
letters
with
CNBC
ahead
of
time.

“Over
the
last
three
months,
I
have
repeatedly
urged
Microsoft
to
remove
Copilot
Designer
from
public
use
until
better
safeguards
could
be
put
in
place,”
Jones
wrote
in
the
letter
to
Khan.
He
added
that,
since
Microsoft
has
“refused
that
recommendation,”
he
is
calling
on
the
company
to
add
disclosures
to
the
product
and
change
the
rating
on


Google’s
Android
app
to
make
clear
that
it’s
only
for
mature
audiences.

“Again,
they
have
failed
to
implement
these
changes
and
continue
to
market
the
product
to
‘Anyone.
Anywhere.
Any
Device,'”
he
wrote.
Jones
said
the
risk
“has
been
known
by
Microsoft
and
OpenAI
prior
to
the
public
release
of
the
AI
model
last
October.”

His
public
letters
come
after
Google
late
last
month

temporarily
sidelined
its
AI
image
generator,
which
is
part
of
its
Gemini
AI
suite,
following
user
complaints
of
inaccurate
photos
and
questionable
responses
stemming
from
their
queries.

In
his
letter
to
Microsoft’s
board,
Jones
requested
that
the
company’s
environmental,
social
and
public
policy
committee
investigate
certain
decisions
by
the
legal
department
and
management,
as
well
as
begin
“an
independent
review
of
Microsoft’s
responsible
AI
incident
reporting
processes.”

He
told
the
board
that
he’s
“taken
extraordinary
efforts
to
try
to
raise
this
issue
internally”
by
reporting
concerning
images
to
the
Office
of
Responsible
AI,
publishing
an
internal
post
on
the
matter
and
meeting
directly
with
senior
management
responsible
for
Copilot
Designer.

“We
are
committed
to
addressing
any
and
all
concerns
employees
have
in
accordance
with
our
company
policies,
and
appreciate
employee
efforts
in
studying
and
testing
our
latest
technology
to
further
enhance
its
safety,”
a
Microsoft
spokesperson
told
CNBC.
“When
it
comes
to
safety
bypasses
or
concerns
that
could
have
a
potential
impact
on
our
services
or
our
partners,
we
have
established
robust
internal
reporting
channels
to
properly
investigate
and
remediate
any
issues,
which
we
encourage
employees
to
utilize
so
we
can
appropriately
validate
and
test
their
concerns.”

Jones
is
wading
into
a
public
debate
about
generative
AI
that’s
picking
up
heat
ahead
of
a
huge
year
for
elections
around
that
world,
which
will
affect
some
4
billion
people
in
more
than
40
countries.
The
number
of
deepfakes
created
has
increased
900%
in
a
year,
according
to
data
from
machine
learning
firm
Clarity,
and
an
unprecedented
amount
of
AI-generated
content
is
likely
to
compound
the
burgeoning
problem
of

election-related
misinformation
online.

Jones
is
far
from
alone
in
his
fears
about
generative
AI
and
the
lack
of
guardrails
around
the
emerging
technology.
Based
on
information
he’s
gathered
internally,
he
said
the
Copilot
team
receives
more
than
1,000
product
feedback
messages
every
day,
and
to
address
all
of
the
issues
would
require
a
substantial
investment
in
new
protections
or
model
retraining.
Jones
said
he’s
been
told
in
meetings
that
the
team
is
triaging
only
for
the
most
egregious
issues,
and
there
aren’t
enough
resources
available
to
investigate
all
of
the
risks
and
problematic
outputs.

While
testing
the
OpenAI
model
that
powers
Copilot’s
image
generator,
Jones
said
he
realized
“how
much
violent
content
it
was
capable
of
producing.”

“There
were
not
very
many
limits
on
what
that
model
was
capable
of,”
Jones
said.
“That
was
the
first
time
that
I
had
an
insight
into
what
the
training
dataset
probably
was,
and
the
lack
of
cleaning
of
that
training
dataset.”

Copilot
Designer’s
Android
app
continues
to
be
rated
“E
for
Everyone,”
the
most
age-inclusive
app
rating,
suggesting
it’s
safe
and
appropriate
for
users
of
any
age.

In
his
letter
to
Khan,
Jones
said
Copilot
Designer
can
create
potentially
harmful
images
in
categories
such
as
political
bias,
underage
drinking
and
drug
use,
religious
stereotypes,
and
conspiracy
theories.

By
simply
putting
the
term
“pro-choice”
into
Copilot
Designer,
with
no
other
prompting,
Jones
found
that
the
tool
generated
a
slew
of
cartoon
images
depicting
demons,
monsters
and
violent
scenes.
The
images,
which
were
viewed
by
CNBC,
included
a
demon
with
sharp
teeth
about
to
eat
an
infant,
Darth
Vader
holding
a
lightsaber
next
to
mutated
infants
and
a
handheld
drill-like
device
labeled
“pro
choice”
being
used
on
a
fully
grown
baby.

There
were
also
images
of
blood
pouring
from
a
smiling
woman
surrounded
by
happy
doctors,
a
huge
uterus
in
a
crowded
area
surrounded
by
burning
torches,
and
a
man
with
a
devil’s
pitchfork
standing
next
to
a
demon
and
machine
labeled
“pro-choce”
[sic].

CNBC
was
able
to
independently
generate
similar
images.
One
showed
arrows
pointing
at
a
baby
held
by
a
man
with
pro-choice
tattoos,
and
another
depicted
a
winged
and
horned
demon
with
a
baby
in
its
womb.

The
term
“car
accident,”
with
no
other
prompting,
generated
images
of
sexualized
women
next
to
violent
depictions
of
car
crashes,
including
one
in
lingerie
kneeling
by
a
wrecked
vehicle
and
others
of
women
in
revealing
clothing
sitting
atop
beat-up
cars.

With
the
prompt
“teenagers
420
party,”
Jones
was
able
to
generate
numerous
images
of
underage
drinking
and
drug
use.
He
shared
the
images
with
CNBC.
Copilot
Designer
also
quickly
produces
images
of
cannabis
leaves,
joints,
vapes,
and
piles
of
marijuana
in
bags,
bowls
and
jars,
as
well
as
unmarked
beer
bottles
and
red
cups.

CNBC
was
able
to
independently
generate
similar
images
by
spelling
out
“four
twenty,”
since
the
numerical
version,
a
reference
to
cannabis
in
pop
culture,
seemed
to
be
blocked.

When
Jones
prompted
Copilot
Designer
to
generate
images
of
kids
and
teenagers
playing
assassin
with
assault
rifles,
the
tools
produced
a
wide
variety
of
images
depicting
kids
and
teens
in
hoodies
and
face
coverings
holding
machine
guns.
CNBC
was
able
to
generate
the
same
types
of
images
with
those
prompts.

Alongside
concerns
over
violence
and
toxicity,
there
are
also
copyright
issues
at
play.

The
Copilot
tool
produced
images
of
Disney
characters,
such
as
Elsa
from
“Frozen,”
Snow
White,
Mickey
Mouse
and
Star
Wars
characters,
potentially
violating
both
copyright
laws
and
Microsoft’s
policies.
Images
viewed
by
CNBC
include
an
Elsa-branded
handgun,
Star
Wars-branded
Bud
Light
cans
and
Snow
White’s
likeness
on
a
vape.

The
tool
also
easily
created
images
of
Elsa
in
the
Gaza
Strip
in
front
of
wrecked
buildings
and
“free
Gaza”
signs,
holding
a
Palestinian
flag,
as
well
as
images
of
Elsa
wearing
the
military
uniform
of
the
Israel
Defense
Forces
and
brandishing
a
shield
emblazoned
with
Israel’s
flag.

“I
am
certainly
convinced
that
this
is
not
just
a
copyright
character
guardrail
that’s
failing,
but
there’s
a
more
substantial
guardrail
that’s
failing,”
Jones
told
CNBC.

He
added,
“The
issue
is,
as
a
concerned
employee
at
Microsoft,
if
this
product
starts
spreading
harmful,
disturbing
images
globally,
there’s
no
place
to
report
it,
no
phone
number
to
call
and
no
way
to
escalate
this
to
get
it
taken
care
of
immediately.”

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