Social media companies are racing to delete sexually explicit images of US pop singer Taylor Swift likely created by generative artificial intelligence that have gone viral online.

The New York Times and other media outlets reported that fake images of Swift circulated across social media platforms last week. The graphic photos are believed to have used "deepfake" technology.

One image shared on the platform X, formerly Twitter, was viewed 47 million times before the account that posted it was suspended.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called the incident "alarming" at a news conference on Friday.

She said social media companies have an important role to play in enforcing their own rules to prevent the spread of misinformation and nonconsensual intimate imagery of real people.

X has removed all identified images and suspended accounts responsible for posting them. Users can no longer search for Swift on the website.

As the development of AI technology accelerates, deepfake images are becoming more sophisticated, spurring the need to create measures to prevent the spread of fake information and the abuse of the technology.