Prince Harry and Meghan Markle take aim at 'trillionaire' Elon Musk in blistering new statement

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's charitable foundation, Archewell Philanthropies, has published a statement on its Sussex.com website praising Minnesota's decision to outlaw AI "nudification" applications, which passed the state Senate with a unanimous 65-0 vote, and taking aim at Elon Musk over his efforts to "stop the law from going into place".

The statement, headlined "Can we all agree technology should not enable predators to target children?", commends the legislation as a landmark moment driven by the advocacy of families and young people demanding stronger digital safeguards.

Archewell described the Minnesota ban as "an example of leadership fit for the digital age: a bi-partisan decision to stop technology from enabling predatory behavior disproportionately targeting women and children."

The foundation noted that even in a politically divided state, the measure attracted no opposition whatsoever: "It was unanimously agreed that this technology, if not stopped, would protect predators and hurt innocent people, especially women and girls."

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The statement reserved its sharpest language for the technology industry's efforts to undermine such protections. Archewell said that "Big Tech has taken shocking steps to limit restrictions on or accountability for these objectively predatory A.I. product features."

In particular, the foundation took aim at the company behind X's Grok AI tool, noting that "the trillionaire leader of the tech company responsible for X's Grok, sued the state of Minnesota to stop the law from going into place" just before the ban was due to take effect.

The statement drew attention to three separate legal actions filed in the same week against that very feature, "including a UK lawmaker, an Arkansas family, and five children from Tennessee, all filing new lawsuits against that same Grok feature, alleging it created sexual material of them."

Archewell accused the company of "mitigating risk to their bottom line instead of aggressively responding to the clear evidence their product features are enabling predators to prey on women and children."

The statement explains that these applications enable users to produce nude images of other people, including children, without any form of consent.

Drawing on research referenced by the United Nations, Archewell highlighted staggering figures: "90 to 95 percent of all online deepfakes are non-consensual pornographic images, with around 90 percent depicting women."

The scale of the problem has grown rapidly, with the foundation noting that "the total number of deepfake videos online in 2023 was 550 percent higher than in 2019."

The statement further underscored the gendered nature of the crisis, citing that "deepfake pornography makes up 98 percent of all deepfake videos online, and 99 percent of the individuals targeted are women."

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The law, Archewell said, was a direct response to "a growing body of evidence and stories of women, teen girls, and children targeted with AI-generated non-consensual images."

Beyond Minnesota, the statement noted that legislators in Pennsylvania, North Dakota and California have begun "proposing interventions and launching investigations to stop A.I. technology designed to allow the abuse, harassment, stalking, and sexualization of targeted individuals and children."

At the federal level, Archewell pointed to the passage of the Take It Down Act through Congress, which criminalises the non-consensual sharing of intimate images and AI-generated deepfakes whilst compelling platforms to take them down.

However, the foundation expressed frustration that other crucial legislation remains stalled.

The Defiance Act, which would grant survivors of non-consensual deepfakes a civil right of action, "has been passed by the Senate twice but has yet to make it to a vote on the House floor."

Archewell posed a pointed question about the hold-up: "The answer may lie in the deepest offense to families and children: the tech industry's commitment to pushback on these bills to protect their bottom line."

The foundation concluded its statement with a broadside against the technology sector's priorities, declaring that "Big Tech companies are raising billions claiming AI will bring society forward, yet they retaliate against basic safety measures to keep children safe."

Archewell closed with two rhetorical questions that encapsulated its wider call for urgent action: "Can AI make our world better while it enables the worst in humans? Should our children pay the price while we wait to find out?"

Throughout the statement, the foundation made clear its support for lawmakers willing to confront the industry, writing that "Archewell Philanthropies applauds leadership taking the tech-fueled sexualization of women and children seriously and doing all they can to keep society safe."

The intervention marks the latest effort by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's organisation to campaign for stronger digital protections, particularly for women and young people vulnerable to AI-generated exploitation.

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