JEFF BENNETT: So-called nudity techniques are on the rise.
These AI-powered tools can generate realistic, fake images and videos that depict people undressed, often without their knowledge or consent.
William Brangham reports on growing concerns about the technology and efforts to curb it.
William Brangham: As the types and uses of this technology have increased, lawmakers at the state and federal level have tried to draft laws to curb it, but that has proven extremely difficult.
Therefore, to help you understand this current situation, Korina Koltai joins us.
She is an investigative journalist for the news site Bellingcat and has covered this issue in depth.
Corina, thank you so much for being here.
First, can you help me understand what these technologies are, what they do, and how they do it?
Corina Koltai, Bellingcat: Yes.
Thank you for being here.
It’s a bit complicated, but basically there are a lot of different services, apps, and products out there, from websites to apps that you can download to your phone that allow you to basically take a picture of someone’s face and create pornographic images of them, and now pornographic videos.
So this could be something as simple as digitally removing clothing from a photo, which is where the term nudization comes from, for example.
You take a real photo and take off your clothes, so your body is completely generated by AI, but these days we also have technology that allows you to upload someone’s face, creating a completely new image, just like you’d imagine from Facebook or Instagram.
This means that the entire image is generated by AI based on that person.
So, on that basis, it makes images and videos that are sexual in nature quite convincing.
There are also apps that allow you to swap faces.
So you have a video clip, sometimes a porn video clip, and you upload someone’s face and you basically just replace that person’s face with the body of another actress.
So while the face itself and the video itself may be real, they are from two different sources.
All of these fall under the so-called AI spectrum.
Nakedness, AI
Deepfakes, AI-powered non-consensual intimate images.
William Brangham: And how widespread are these technologies?
Who makes it and who uses it?
Corinna Koltai: Yes, unfortunately this technology is incredibly popular.
This is a global problem, not just here in the United States, but one that definitely plagues places like the United States, for example.
high school.
This type of technology is becoming more widespread and is increasingly being used by students.
Some recent studies have shown that about 50 percent of students are familiar with the technology and have seen someone use it.
And I think it continues to rise and rise.
And when it comes to the prevalence and availability of these kinds of apps and technology, technology that does similar things is available in the Google Store and the app Play Store that people can access on their phones.
But then you also think about platforms from really well-known brands, like Grok on X. Therefore, Grok is one of the widely available platforms.
Although this app is not advertised as a nudity or aid fake app, it has been consistently used to generate non-consensual intimate images of adults and minors.
But we will also see the proliferation of websites.
You may visit certain websites.
You don’t have to do anything special or use the Google search platform or any search platform to incorporate things like deepfake generators, nudity apps, undressing stuff, things of that nature, and you can easily access this.
And especially, these are inexpensive services.
Unfortunately, I say that with a dollar and five minutes, you can create a truly compelling and intimate image without someone’s consent.
William Brangham: Can you talk a little bit about the efforts that have been made to curb this?
I know there have been actions at the federal and state levels.
What have they done and how successful have they been?
Corinna Koltai: Yes, we’ve seen some really great actions taken by the federal government.
So, if you’re familiar with what’s called the take-it-down law, I think we’ve now actually seen three people charged and arrested under that law.
But this is a big change. Typically, what we’ve seen is a lot of legislation at the state level, because each state has to pass its own laws regarding either revenge porn, synthetic images, or non-consensual images.
But federal law, this federal law, the TAKE IT DOWN Act, is going to make them a little more widespread.
This means that deepfake laws will actually apply across the country, as it includes everything from criminalizing the creation of images.
Apply it to your platform.
As such, platforms must remove images within 48 hours of receiving the notification and various other notices.
So you’re punishing people who are using it for blackmail as well.
Therefore, people sometimes threaten to “make an image of you,” which may fall under the take-it-down law.
So this is a major legal reform.
Minnesota recently passed a bill that actually blocks the technology itself.
So one of the things that I often talk about and tell people is that one of the big gaps that we have is that the technology itself doesn’t seem to be illegal.
Therefore, image creation is now considered universal throughout the United States
Contrary to the law, this technology itself is now beginning. A law banning nude app technology is expected to come into effect in August.
William Brangham: Well, I know a lot of your reporting looks at the financial incentives here.
And if people can make and sell these products and make money, that seems like the important problem to solve here.
KOLINA KOLTAI: Yes, I like to say that I think the people who develop technology and create websites, apps, and services aren’t necessarily always in games for the love of games.
It’s a bit of a whack-a-mole situation.
The kind of reporting we do tries to identify the people behind those websites, the people who are profiting from the websites of the people who are paying those services to have them shut down. Because saying that I own one of those websites is still a very taboo topic.
So we hope that our report will shut them down.
But at the end of the day, if people can’t make money off these sites anymore, and unfortunately they’re not pulling in multi-million dollar industries like deepfakes, which are not important, I think they’ll move on to something else.
We’ve seen this situation many times, especially with a lot of people trying to break into this scene.
They’re in it because they think they can make money from it.
So the harder it gets to police, or as I like to say, create friction, the more friction you add to the process, the harder it becomes for people to access the technology, the harder it is for people to pay for the technology, the harder it is for people to benefit from the technology, and the more we can continue to try to nip this problem in the bud.
William Brangham: This is Corina Koltai from Bellingcat.
Thank you so much for sharing this very problematic journalism with us.
Corinna Koltai: Thank you for having me.
