The creator of an artificial intelligence art generator that recently sparked concerns over user privacy published an updated policy that addresses the app’s data practices and allegations that it generates portraits of some women in sexualized poses or with little to no clothing.
Prisma Labs’ Lensa AI, which also has drawn accusations of copyright infringement, went viral on social media this month for its vibrant art portraits generated from a handful of user photos and selfies for a small fee.
The updated privacy policy for the app—currently the fifth most popular on the Apple App Store—clarifies how user data is used to train the company’s AI. Lensa’s previous policy said the app uses uploaded photos and videos to train its algorithms to perform better, but the latest version explains that no personal data is used to generally train Prisma Labs’ other artificial intelligence products.
The app’s privacy policy was updated to “provide a higher degree of clarity to our customers, specifically when it comes to the use and understanding of legal language and terminology,” according to an email from company spokesperson Anna Green.
“We would like to provide a level of reassurance that does not leave any room for potential misinterpretations,” Green said.
Regarding the alleged hypersexualization of some women, Lensa AI’s policy states it will do its best to “moderate the parameters of the Stable Diffusion model, however, it is still possible that you may encounter content that you may see as inappropriate for you.” Stable Diffusion is a machine-learning model trained on large amounts of unfiltered internet data to create images based on text prompts.
Additionally, the new policy provides more detail on privacy rights for residents of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, and Virginia—the only five states with comprehensive privacy laws, some of which go into effect in the new year. For example, users in those states can request information about what user data is collected and to have it deleted.
The legal team at Prisma Labs decided to add the state-specific section for the benefit of its core user base and after conducting a review of soon-to-be required legal notices, Green said.
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