There is a new AI-powered software tool that makes it easy for users to generate realistic unclad photos of women. Users only need to feed the program with an image of a fully clothed woman, and it will s***p the person bare. This new app, called DeepN*de (pronounced as ‘deep nood’), is the latest evidence that one can use AI-generated DeepFake technology to create compromising images of women.
It is available to download for free for Windows users. But the premium version which costs $99 created images with higher resolution.
The free and premium versions of the app have watermarks to identify that the images are fake. However, it has been discovered that it is quite easy to remove this watermark. This means that people can use the app to perpetrate harm against innocent unsuspecting women.
The quality of output on the DeepN*de app varies. On closer inspection, it is mostly easy to spot that the images are fake. The flesh created by AI is pixel-ridden and blurry. Therefore, it advises users to use images with high-resolution for best results. It also advises that it will be easier to use photos where the person already wears revealing clothes.
Meanwhile, on lower resolution photos, the fake images are easy to mistake for the real thing when glanced at briefly. People have highly criticised the Deepfake technology since its advent. Others have also used it to create fake celebrity p*********y over time.
The adverse effects
Now, there are fears that it could make people target and harm innocent women on social networking platforms. They can use the app to harass, intimidate, shame, blackmail and silence women. This new app means with the click of one button, some people can create deepfakes of co-workers and friends.
The shocking part of all these is that the app is incapable of producing n*de images of men. It adds a vulva when fed with a picture of a man, assuming it is a woman.
DeepN*de creator Alberto said he got inspiration from old comic book adverts for X-ray specs. The ad promised that the gadget could see through people’s clothes. He then said, “Like everyone, I was fascinated by the idea that they could really exist, and this memory remained.”
He said he made the app out of curiosity and AI enthusiasm, and also wants to make money from his experiments. On the potential hard this app could cause, he explained, “I also said to myself: the technology is ready (within everyone’s reach). So if someone has bad intentions, having DeepN*de doesn’t change much … If I don’t do it, someone else will do it in a year.”
Alberto admitted that he worried about legal fallouts. He said that “every picture edited through this software is considered a fake parody” and an “entertainment service” that does “not promote s*xually explicit images.”