Man loses nuclear clearance after uploading AI-generated ‘robot porn’ to DOE

Amid the relentless expansion of artificial intelligence (AI) into every pore of our society, a United States Department of Energy (DOE) employee has lost his security clearance after accidentally uploading AI-generated ‘robot porn’ to a government computer system.

Indeed, the unnamed worker, who had access to information about America’s nuclear stockpile, said he’d been collecting pornographic images over three decades and planned to use them as training data for an AI image generator, according to a recent report.

AI porn project turns nuclear

Per a DOE investigation, the man claimed the upload of 187,000 pornographic images was a mistake. Specifically, on March 23, 2023, he attempted to back up his personal files, but instead of sending them to his own cloud drive, he transferred the massive porn archive to the DOE network.

As it happens, he only realized what had happened when investigators showed up six months later to ask why government servers were suddenly full of explicit images. As the DOE report stated, he thought his personal drives were “somehow partitioned, and his personal material would not contaminate his [government-issued computer].”

Furthermore, the employee told investigators he’d been struggling with depression and used generative AI as a “coping strategy,” including experimenting with “robot pornography.” He described the interrogation that followed as “the Spanish Inquisition” and accused his employer of “spying on him ‘a little too much.”’

However, DOE psychologists determined his “probability of experiencing another depressive episode in the future” was “very high,” and the department ultimately revoked his security clearance. The ruling, which is now public record as part of his failed appeal, concluded that the incident demonstrated poor judgment and potential risk.

Meanwhile, researchers have linked frequent generative AI use with a high score in the so-called Dark Triad or certain aversive or ‘dark’ personality traits associated with Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy, as AI browsing only takes up about 1% of online activity for the rest of the population.