Apps and websites that use artificial intelligence to undress women in photos are soaring in popularity, according to researchers.
In September alone, 24 million people visited undressing websites, according to the social network analysis company Graphika.
Many of these undressing, or “nudify,” services use popular social networks for marketing, according to Graphika. For instance, since the beginning of this year, the number of links advertising undressing apps increased more than 2,400% on social media, including on X and Reddit, the researchers said. The services use AI to recreate an image so that the person is nude. Many of the services only work on women.
These apps are part of a worrying trend of non-consensual pornography being developed and distributed because of advances in artificial intelligence — a type of fabricated media known as deepfake pornography. Its proliferation runs into serious legal and ethical hurdles, as the images are often taken from social media and distributed without the consent, control or knowledge of the subject.
I think even that is ultimately a lost cause. There are cameras everywhere and there’s getting to be more. Facebook is trying to get us all used to having cameras right on our face at all times. Even if you could completely block your face from every camera, how long until the AI equivalent of a police sketch artist just remakes your face from someone’s description?
The difference is the source. If someone pulls a screen grab of you from a Target security camera and uses AI to make porn, the employee has a problem because Target has a problem. If you take photos of yourself at the beach and share them via Facebook, then anyone anywhere can end up with that photo and use it for almost anything with no problem because you took it and shared it publicly.
Hopefully this gets people to realize how much they are giving up by sharing via Facebook, and Instagram, and Xitter, and TicTac or whatever. If you want to be social media famous, be famous. But fame comes at a price.
I could easily imagine a simple brain/computer interface - not even requiring an implant, just one of those helmet or headband things - where you are looking at a screen while thinking about a person that you remember. The AI starts tweaking the image on the screen and monitoring how closely your brain is registering a “match” to the image you’re thinking of, until eventually it’s spot on.
Won’t guarantee that you remembered perfectly, of course. But no camera required for something like this.