[imagesource:rawpixel]

There’s a disturbing trend emerging on the likes of Telegram where AI bots are generating fake nude images of women from regular photos.

In 2020, deepfake specialist Henry Ajder uncovered a shocking Telegram bot capable of “undressing” photos, churning out over 100,000 explicit images—many involving minors. This revelation sent shockwaves through the tech world, spotlighting the alarming dangers lurking in the shadowy depths of AI.

Just recently, WIRED reviewed activity on Telegram and discovered at least 50 bots that create similar explicit photos and videos – so things have only gotten worse.

With this invasive tech, users can simply upload any clothed photo of any person (mostly women) and receive a fabricated nude image or fake sexual video in return, often within minutes. The concerning part is that these bots have over 4 million monthly users combined, which is likely just a portion of the true scale of users.

“We’re talking about a significant, orders-of-magnitude increase in the number of people who are clearly actively using and creating this kind of content,” said Ajder, in the new article.

“It is really concerning that these tools—which are really ruining lives and creating a very nightmarish scenario primarily for young girls and for women—are still so easy to access and to find on the surface web, on one of the biggest apps in the world.”

Back in 2020, one cybersecurity firm claimed to find images of 100,000 women. That’s basically one woman per user. And now there’s 4 million users.

“These types of fake images can harm a person’s health and well-being by causing psychological trauma and feelings of humiliation, fear, embarrassment, and shame,” added Emma Pickering, head of technology-facilitated abuse and economic empowerment at Refuge, the largest UK domestic abuse organization for women.

Telegram, which recently issued an apology to South Korea over its troubling deepfake porn problem, doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to tackling exploitation on its platform.

“Telegram offers a search functionality that lets users easily find communities, chats, and bots,” noted Ajder. “It provides the tools for hosting these bots, effectively enabling the creation and distribution of harmful content, making it a prime environment for executing such exploitation.”

Nobody is safe anymore.

[source:vice]