Betrayal was the first thought to cross the mind of a University of Hong Kong (HKU) law student when she found out that a classmate, whom she had considered a friend, had used AI to depict her naked.
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“I felt a great sense of betrayal and was traumatised by the friendship and all the collective memories,” said the student, who has asked to be called “B”.
She was not alone. More than 700 deepfake pornographic images were found on her male classmate’s computer, including AI-generated pictures of other HKU students.
B said she felt “used” and that her bodily autonomy and dignity had been violated.
Angered by what she saw as inaction by HKU in the aftermath of the discovery and the lack of protection under existing city laws, B joined forces with two other female students to set up an Instagram account to publicise the case.
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HKU said it had issued a warning letter to the male student and told him to make a formal apology. It later said it was reviewing the incident and vowed to take further action, with the privacy watchdog also launching a criminal investigation.
But the women said they had no plans to file a police report as the city lacked the right legal “framework”.