Engineering with Conscience: A Manifesto for the AI Age from Nisarg Desai's Idea / Prospect

Dear Fellow Engineers,

We didn’t become engineers to dehumanize, degrade, or destroy. But today, we are at a tipping point.

As of February 2026, the tools we built in the spirit of "open-source freedom" have been hijacked. We are witnessing an industrial-scale machine for the production of non-consensual sexual abuse material (NCII).

The Reality Check: February 2026

If you think this is a "small" issue or that filters have fixed it, look at the data from the last 30 days:

• The Grok Crisis: Just today (Feb 17, 2026), the Irish Data Protection Commission, acting for the EU, launched a "large-scale inquiry" into X. Why? Because users found they could bypass Grok’s "filters" to generate sexualized images of real people—including children.

• The Scale of Abuse: A January 2026 study found that in just 11 days, one AI tool was used to generate 3 million sexualized images. That is one act of digital abuse every 41 seconds.

• The Victim Count: UNICEF just reported (Feb 4, 2026) that 1.2 million children have had their images manipulated into deepfakes in the last year alone. In some countries, that is 1 in every 25 children.

To My Fellow Builders: Accountability is the New Innovation

We often hide behind the "Neutrality of Code." We tell ourselves that an algorithm is just math. But when we design a system with lax filters or release "uncensored" models without guardrails, we aren't being "open"—we are being reckless.

Here is how we take back our profession:

1. Report "Poisoned" Repos: As of February 6, 2026, the UK’s new Data Act makes creating non-consensual deepfakes a criminal offense. If you see a GitHub repo or a Hugging Face model designed for "nudification," report it. It isn't "cool code"; it's a crime scene.

2. The "One-Star" Rule: Do not support or "star" repositories that even subtly hint at NSFW exploitation. Your star is your professional endorsement. Don't give it to abusers.

3. Pressure the Platforms: We must demand that NVIDIA, Meta, and xAI move beyond "Safety by PR" to "Safety by Design." Engineering is Not Neutral Being an engineer means you understand the impact of what you build. If your code can be used to strip a woman’s dignity or haunt a child’s future, the code is broken.

Let’s draw the line. Let’s build for humanity, not for harm. 

Join the conversation at EngineersHeaven.org, where we are building a community of engineers who put ethics before "engagement."

If you don't know how to report please follow the link.

https://www.engineersheaven.org/blogs/734?title=The-Engineer%E2%80%99s-Guide-to-Reporting-AI-Abuse-(Feb-2026)