Microsoft Launches Controversial AI App for iPhone and Android Devices

Microsoft’s AI ambitions continue this week, as the company yesterday announced the release of a free mobile app for Designer — the same app that brings the imaging capabilities available on Windows, mobile devices, and the Microsoft Copilot browser.

Microsoft Designer is an AI-powered graphic design and image editing tool, similar to Adobe Express or Canva. With Designer, you can use AI to generate images from scratch, modify images and photos in seconds, and design documents, invitations, flyers, and more from a selection of ready-made, customizable templates.

In the post to Microsoft 365 BlogCorporate Affairs Vice President Sumit Chauhan highlights a number of changes the app brings, including seamless integration with Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Photos, support for over 80 languages, and the release of new apps for Windows, iOS, and Android devices.

But while there’s plenty to celebrate about the broad availability of Microsoft’s AI imaging tool, the news isn’t without controversy. Designer has a pretty checkered history to contend with when it comes to one of the biggest AI controversies of 2024 and concerns within the company about “systemic issues” with the content it produces.

Microsoft Designer’s shady past

First unveiled in October 2022, Microsoft Designer was set to become the latest tool in the Microsoft 365 suite of tools that uses artificial intelligence to make the creative process more efficient and speed up graphic design tasks for businesses and individuals.

Microsoft released a preview of Designer in April 2023, adding several generative AI features that enable users of all skill levels to create better text and visuals using natural language input.

Microsoft was aware of these vulnerabilities and the potential for abuse.
Shane Jones, Microsoft Software Engineer

However, in January 2024, Designer found itself at the centre of a storm of controversy after it was identified as one of the tools used to generate sexually explicit images of celebrities like Taylor Swift that soon became popular on X/Twitter.

Worse still, Microsoft’s Principal Software Engineering Manager, Shane Jones, publicly highlighted his attempts to inform Microsoft and OpenAI about the Designer vulnerabilities from December 2023.

Jones said that “Microsoft was aware of these vulnerabilities and the potential for abuse,” and the company responded that it had “investigated the employee’s report and confirmed that the techniques he shared did not bypass our security filters in any of our AI-based image generation solutions.”

Photographic illustration of Microsoft Designer in action in web and mobile applications

Microsoft software engineer Shane Jones pointed out potential security flaws in Designer, but the site reportedly did not produce any results, even months before the software was misused. (Photo source: Microsoft)

Despite Microsoft’s assurances, Jones persisted and was eventually told to take his concerns directly to OpenAI (creators of the Dall-E 3 AI model used to generate the image in Designer) — but he claims he received no response.

Jones’ concerns came to light just a month later when AI-generated images from Designer flooded social media, prompting the United States to pass legislation aimed at combating unwanted sex deepfakes and causing Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella to call the situation “alarming and scary.”

Photo of Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has called the misuse of artificial intelligence in its Designer image-generation tool to create sexually explicit photos of celebrities “alarming and horrifying.” (Photo source: Microsoft)

Microsoft’s response to the misuse of the graphic design tool was (pardon the pun) swift, quickly closing a loophole that allowed users to generate the now-popular sexual images.

There’s no clear indication that the vulnerabilities pointed out by Shane Jones and the flaw in question are the same, but the incident prompted Microsoft to double down on its security measures — the company ultimately rolled out AI Prompt Shielding across all of its services in March, a move aimed at cracking down on future attempts to jailbreak its AI models.

Perspectives

Designer has been a relatively quiet app since Microsoft responded to abuse of its graphic design tool. But the app remains a prime example of the need for AI developers to be vigilant about potential abuse, and a reminder that there is a group of users who will try to circumvent these measures at every turn.

Microsoft Designer is now in a much better place in terms of security and usability, and this week’s broader release of the software marks a new chapter and a chance to start fresh.

Microsoft Designer is available for free on the web, iOS, Android, and Windows. It offers a powerful and intuitive set of tools for those who want to achieve ambitious graphic design results quickly and efficiently.