The introduction of generative AI - or artificial intelligence - has turned the internet on its head, from how we use it to what we see there.

In response, the eSafety Commissioner has introduced a new code to reduce any potential harm. 

Under the new ‘Search Code’, search engines including Google and Bing will be required to take steps to prevent child sexual abuse material being returned in search results, and ensure that AI incorporated into search engines is not misused to create deep-faked versions of similar content. 

What is deepfake?

A deepfake is visual material that has been manipulated to replicate someone’s likeness with another, or creating synthetic images of a real person.

While not new, the rise of AI has made deepfaking a person’s likeness increasingly easier, with little human intervention required. 

Although deepfakes can be used innocently, such as in film editing, it has become increasingly associated with pornography, synthetically implicating someone who isn’t aware of its creation.

By inserting protections against deepfakes that create child sexual abuse material, eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant hopes prevent the ‘worst of the worst’ online content. 

“The commencement of the search code is really significant as it helps ensure one of the key gateways to accessing this material, through online search engines, is closed,” Ms Inman Grant said. 

eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant. (eSafety)

“It will target illegal content and I will be able to seek significant enforceable penalties if search engines fail to comply with a direction to comply with the code.”

Due to the rapidly growing nature of generative AI, eSafety was forced back to the drawing in creating an all-encompassing Search Code.

“Creating this code has not been entirely smooth sailing.”

“The sudden and rapid rise of generative AI and subsequent announcements by Google and Bing that they would incorporate AI functionality into their search engine services meant the original code would have been out of date before it commenced.”

What does it mean?

Little will change for search engine users, with the responsibility being with the search engines to ensure the code standards are met. 

Search engines complying should see that search returns including child sexual exploitation material, pro-terror material, and extreme crime and violence material shouldn’t be available. 

 ”What we’ve ended up with is a robust code that delivers broad protections for Australians.”  

Details of the code can be found here.