AI clothes removers, also called Nudify AI or Undress AI, are one of the unpleasant sides of the advancement of AI technology. Recently, Elon Musk’s Grok, embedded in social media, X, went mainstream for all the wrong reasons.
Grok was given free rein to create sexually explicit images of women, and X users didn’t hold back. Many women, including celebrities and politicians, were horrified to find unclad images of themselves online.
Some could argue that everyone knows the images aren’t real. But the psychological harm victims experience debates that narrative.
Deepfake Technology
AI technology has done several things for humanity. It has given us ways to increase our work output, navigate daily situations better, and have highly personalized and specific answers.
But it has created an unpleasant side effect. It has given bad actors a modern way to perpetrate long-standing biases like misogyny and crime. Deepfake tech helps to construct false scenarios, media assets, and narratives that skew public opinions and thinking about a concept or person.
These tools are readily available to anyone with internet access. Deepfake technology has largely been unregulated. And this is the cause of the massive misuse we’ve witnessed. It appears that no one is immune to the bad effects of this tech. Taylor Swift and Scarlett Johansson falling victim has called for high-level scrutiny.
Psychological Harm
Many victims, irrespective of social standing, have reported feeling harassed, exploited, and cyberbullied. The psychological feelings these experiences incite persist even long after the incident.
Even though some hold the opinion that the images are fake. Imagery of that nature will incite strong emotions that aren’t particularly pleasing. No one will see a non-consensual image of themselves, posed sexually or covered in blood and bruises, and go, “That’s wonderful!”
Here’s the reality the naysayers ignore: explicit AI-generated images, no matter how fake, are based on real photos. The AI scans a real human’s photo, learns the structure, frame, and other details. It then replicates the photo sans clothing and/or in sexual poses.
That narrative, no matter how harmless it seems, will always cause significant emotional distress. It implies that someone specifically targeted them with sexual intentions without gaining their consent. That’s close to being harassed physically.
Being online doesn’t make it less real, and the effects are similar, if not the same. Victims could experience sadness, anger, and even fear where professional aspirations are concerned.
A Toronto woman specifically said she felt violated when she happened upon a TikTok account filled with AI-generated images of herself in lingerie. The account also had explicit videos of her performing sexual acts.
All attempts to report the account to TikTok had failed at that point. She started skipping classes due to fear of being recognized and being associated with something so inappropriate.
The woman, who chose to remain anonymous for obvious reasons, feared reputational damage. She, along with many others, faces such a warped reality. Although females of all ages represent the larger percentage of this demographic, men have found themselves as victims, too.
CBS News reported a story on Elijah Heacock, a young teen, who became a victim of sextortion. Some criminals had made an AI-generated nude photo of Elijah and asked that he pay $3000 to prevent its release to friends and family. 16-year-old Elijah took his own life shortly after.
Ethical Issues
Cases of depfake harassment and extortion uncover disregard for basic ethics. First, it represents a violation of consent. Intimate matters require mutual consent. The larger issue is that the AI-generated images are rarely kept private. Instead, they are paraded in online spaces for anyone to see. This one-sided willingness disregards the basic human right to privacy.
Sometimes, it’s an issue of exploitation in an attempt to embarrass or harass a target. This is commonly expressed as gender-based harassment of women. In this case, the aim is to strip a female target of dignity by portraying them in a demeaning manner. The unclad images, even fake, imprint a certain connotation that’s damaging.
Also read: Why Undress AI Tools Are Problematic
Legal Consequences
The heightening scrutiny surrounding clothes removers has led to regulations. In the U.S., Donald Trump signed the Take It Down Act, a law that prevents the creation and sharing of non-consensual deepfakes, particularly of minors.
Grok has also been reportedly banned in Thailand and subjected to intense investigation in India and the U.K. This was after the social media chatbot failed to address concerns over weaponized deepfakes.
Also read: Senators Demand Answers over Sexualized Deepfakes
Long-term Harm
Although several governments have risen to the occasion to curb the misuse of deepfake technology, thousands have fallen victim. As reported by a victim, the images never go away. Someone somewhere may have it saved on their device. It could be locked away in a corner of the internet in wait for the perfect time to be unleashed.
AI technology has become so advanced that the lines have blurred between real pictures and AI-generated images. When an original can’t be properly distinguished from a fake, the damage to actual human lives is as real as it can get.
Unfortunately, the law struggles to outpace the damaging effects of deepfake technology. Many reasonably fear that it is only a matter of time before these bad actors navigate their way around already established laws.
This has caused responsibility to shift to the susceptible populations. Probable victims are being tasked with protecting themselves online by refraining from sharing personal photos. But this strategy is restrictive and impractical in a world as digitalized as ours.
