My friend stole my face for deepfake nude – now I want stricter laws

The victim of Scotland's first deepfake image prosecution says she is left feeling “humiliated and betrayed” after the man who turned her likeness into a doctor was fined.

Callum Brooks, 25, became one of the first to be found guilty of using artificial intelligence (AI) technology to create and share Deepfake Nude images after pleading the crime in court last month. He was fined £335.

Sophie (not her real name) told BBC Scotland News that crimes using AI require their own laws and should be high penalties.

The Scottish government said it is taking into account the need for another law.

A deepfake is a digitally manipulated image or video that replaces one person's portrait with another persuasive person.

Sophie says she is terrifying when she notices her face is placed on two naked images, and says Brooks (someone she knew from high school) reported it to police.

She said she felt “small” and “vulnerable” after her friend warned her about the photos.

“It was a huge sense of betrayal,” she said. “It makes me disgusting that you can do that to someone you call a friend.

“It listened to my heart for a few days before my mom admitted she was embarrassed. I was worried that these images might be on the website. If I Google my name, will it come up?”

She was mad that someone had “invited” her image from a social media post.

“My picture, fully dressed, was completely naked, so it was completely naked. If he (my friend) had sent this, who else had it? Has it been uploaded online?”

Sharing such images without the consent of a person is already a criminal offence, but the UK government last year committed to creating another crime to create a sexually explicit deepfake.

John Swinney's first minister said the Scottish government is “examined” whether certain laws are needed, and that they will work with Westminster on whether to extend the new laws to Scotland.

Brooks insisted that his actions had no sexual element, but the Crown accepted.

Sophie feels strongly that separate laws will help victims like her better.

“I hope it will be treated more seriously. I feel like we should create new laws on AI-specific crimes.”

Experts at Abertay University are already working on better ways to combat Deepfake images.

A new PhD will begin next month, and it will be better to identify deepfakes. It raises awareness of both the police and the public.

Dr. Lynsay Shepherd, Abertay's cybersecurity expert, said the move was “very important.”

She added: “As technology advances, it is difficult to try and stay one step ahead.

“There's not much that can be done by defending yourself, as these nudification applications can be uploaded images.

“These applications have a variety of features of what you want to add to your images. They're very depressing and very easy to do.”

She added that collective efforts are needed to address the issue of Deepfark in the long run.

“Law enforcement cannot address this on its own. Academia cannot address this on its own. It's very important to work with industry stakeholders,” she said.

A Scottish government spokesman said, “The crime of “unconsensual sharing of intimate images” introduced in 2016 makes sharing of images, including deepfake images, appear to show or show people in intimate situations without consent.

“The Scottish Government maintains the law under continuous review and will consider during discussion whether further changes are needed to address the creation of deepfake sexual images.”

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