AI tools that can be used to create pornographic images are easy to find online and are even pushed by accounts on Google’s YouTube and China’s TikTok.
TikTok posts are promoting “AI clothing removal” websites, saying users can “remove clothes from any picture,” including those of their “crush,” while YouTube videos are also showing users how to make “not safe for work AI images,” according to a report by NewsNation.
“Do you have any picture of your crush? I’ve discovered an incredible AI website that I’m sure you’ll find interesting because no girl wants you to know about this tool. You can remove the clothes from any picture,” an apparent AI-generated man reportedly says in a TikTok video.
Sundar Pichai, chief executive officer of Alphabet Inc., during the Google I/O Developers Conference in Mountain View, California, US, on Wednesday, May 10, 2023. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
CULVER CITY, CALIFORNIA – DECEMBER 20: The TikTok logo is displayed outside a TikTok office on December 20, 2022 in Culver City, California. Congress is pushing legislation to ban the popular Chinese-owned social media app from most government devices. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
Other videos posted to the Chinese platform also push clothing removal tools using a nearly identical script with the same robotic cadence, NewsNation reported.
The report added that while a TikTok search for AI nudity tools delivered several results last week, the app blocked the search a day later, displaying a message that read, “This phrase may be associated with behavior or content that violates our guidelines.”
NewsNation reported that TikTok removed two clips the outlet flagged for the Chinese platform, saying they were in violation of the company’s AI-generated content policy.
A TikTok spokesperson also pointed to the company’s sexual exploitation guidelines, which prohibit users from editing a persons image in order to sexualize them.
AI “nudifier” tools take real images and create naked photos using deep learning algorithms, NewsNation reported. The algorithms are typically trained on images of women, allowing for AI to generate realistic images of naked body parts, even if the subject of the image is clothed. The tools are also easy to find.
Moreover, the AI-generated nudity issue has already reportedly spread to a high school in New Jersey, where school officials now worry about new cyberbullying tactics.
Westfield High School students told the Wall Street Journal that classmates used an AI tool to create pornographic photos of female classmates and circulated them in group chats.
“I am terrified by how this is going to surface and when. My daughter has a bright future and no one can guarantee this won’t impact her professionally, academically or socially,” a 14-year-old student’s mother told the WSJ.
While it remains unclear which AI tool was allegedly used, experts say the internet is filled with tutorials and easy-to-use programs. Westfield police are still investigating the matter.
“There’s a whole ecosystem out there for this stuff,” Adam Dodge, an attorney whose organization EndTAB is focused on ending technology-enabled abuse, said.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and X/Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
