Today, "AI stripping" technology has generated a black industry chain. Upstream criminals generate pictures through AI technology, and integrate these pictures, package them into an atlas, and sell them to downstream buyers through a complete set of sales, and some people have established a "paid membership group" for this purpose, so that some innocent people and even minors fall into the vortex of "yellow rumors". A reporter from China Youth Daily conducted an investigation and interview on this.
The "AI stripping" diagram was publicly sold
"It is indeed my face in the picture, but here I ... Why are you not wearing clothes? ”
In May this year, Li Yi (pseudonym), who was still studying at university, received a picture sent to her by a netizen, and after reading it, she was angry and scared.
Lee is also a cosplay blogger who often shares photos of himself playing various anime characters on social media. Later, she and netizens found Luo Fan (screen name) who made nude photos. Luo Fan admitted that he put the photos into an AI (artificial intelligence) software that "took off" Li Yi's clothes in less than a few minutes. On the Internet, Luo Fan publicly sold pictures for 5 yuan a piece, claiming that 60 yuan can buy "nude photos" of more than 60 bloggers, including photos of minors.
Multiple victims were plotted by criminals. Photo courtesy of interviewee
"I've never taken a picture like this!" An angry Li also began to collect evidence of the other party's use of AI to carry out illegal acts, intending to pursue his legal responsibility, so she became friends with Luo Fan as a buyer.
Luo Fan did not directly use the word "AI stripping" to solicit business, but vaguely said that he was "changing the picture": "Little sister, here is the 'change of picture' of Cosplay, 5 yuan a piece." When Li Yi further asked how he "changed the picture", Luo Fan vaguely said that he used AI technology to generate various cosplay pictures.
Li also found clues from a group chat set up by Luo Fan. Here, Luo Fan not only continued to provide "picture modification" services, but also released a large number of pictures with hints of provocation, publicly sold in the form of an atlas, saying that 65 pictures can be bought for 60 yuan, and "it is expected that a total of 300 photos will be slowly updated through group chats."
Criminals are selling AI atlases on the Internet. Photo courtesy of interviewee
"Who is this?" Li also found his "nude photo" from it and went to Luo Fan to understand. "This is Croto (the name of the character) without clothes, and the blogger himself let it be filmed like this." Luo Fan replied, and secretly prompted, "Don't mess around, because the more than 60 bloggers involved in the set of pictures themselves do not agree."
"He said this like we bloggers went to take large-scale photos ourselves!" Li was also very angry, revealed his identity, and confronted Luo Fan.
"I'm sorry sister!" Luo Fan admitted that he "recreated" Li Yi's pictures. Li also said that this is not the normal scope of "secondary creation", but an infringement of her personality rights.
Luo Fan argued that these series of pictures were not from him, "they were made by others", Luo Fan did not realize the seriousness of this matter, and discussed with Li Yi, "My card balance is only 1200 yuan, can I compensate you for 650 yuan privately?" ”
"It's not a matter of money, you're already breaking the law." Li and other bloggers chose to call the police.
The black industry chain harms minors
Li Yi's experience is not unique. AI technology is being abused, and a black industry chain is taking shape.
On the Internet, as long as you enter keywords, you can easily find merchants that provide "AI stripping" related technologies or services. Under the banner of "AI painting" and "AI redrawing", they solicit business on social media, guide customers to add their contact information, and after one-on-one communication or joining a private group chat, they come up with suggestive pictures to induce netizens to buy.
There are many victims of "AI stripping", even minors. One seller claimed to have "a lot of resources" and sent a complete price list, detailing the atlas into "stars", "Internet celebrities", "models", "comics" and other categories, and in the sample pictures he sent, there were even high school students wearing school uniforms. He claimed that if there is no favorite type, customers can send photos "single image customization", two yuan a piece, "pictures on the Internet can be used as material".
"In fact, as long as you master the relevant technology, people can use AI to make these pictures." Lan Tian, a senior algorithm engineer, told China Youth Daily that the "AI stripping" algorithm is called "DeepNude", which has been removed from the United States because of ethical issues, but it is not ruled out that someone has trained machines through other AI algorithms to achieve the same effect.
On a communication software, an AI robot gained many users. It does not require the user to master complex algorithm knowledge, only need to follow its prompts, you can complete the photo "face change" and "remove clothes" and other operations. The robot also has detailed fine settings, which can adjust the parameters of the picture like a beauty camera.
P-chart robots have a variety of functions. Photo courtesy of interviewee
The robot needs to be paid to use, and after clicking the "recharge" button, the user will be directed to a point card recharge website to make an online payment. However, users are not paid to merchants, but individuals, so it is difficult to track the bot's operator. According to its price list, a strip photo can be generated for as little as two dollars.
"The machine is neutral, as long as it is 'fed' enough human anatomy drawings, the machine can redraw the full picture by identifying facial and body features when entering pictures later, and generate a 'strip photo'." Blue Sky said that the machine "only cares about the generation of photos" and does not take into account ethical and legal issues such as the wishes of the people in the photos and whether they are adults.
"The perception that technology is neutral and harmless from the perspective of technological instrumentalism ignores the question of the moral relevance that technology is supposed to have." Xie Ling, associate professor and master's supervisor of the School of Criminal Investigation of Southwest University of Political Science and Law, believes that there are differences between technologies, and the consequences of the abuse of some new technologies, such as deepfakes, are difficult to predict, and their moral, ethical and legal issues are more complicated.
Construct cybersecurity rules from the principle of "best for minors"
Mr. Yao Zhidou, a partner at Beijing Jingshi Law Firm, has come across a number of cases of abuse of new technologies infringing on the rights and interests of minors. In one case, a criminals used "AI face swapping" software to replace the facial information of a large number of minor students collected from Internet channels, produce and generate fake face-swapping obscene videos, and then sell the videos for a fee. "This not only violates the portrait rights and mental health of underage students, but also is suspected of spreading pornographic materials for profit."
"To deal with the risks of new technologies and applications, we need to structure safety rules from the perspective of the principle of 'best interests for minors' and 'children's rights'." Guo Kaiyuan, an expert in juvenile law research at the China Youth Research Center, believes that in view of the risks brought by new technologies and applications, it is necessary to grasp the dynamic balance between the special protection of minors and the application of new technologies. Relevant departments should establish rules for protecting children, respecting privacy, and setting up special protections as soon as possible, especially rules for hierarchical management according to age standards and informed consent rules for guardians.
Xie Ling called for the classification and assessment of the application risks of new technologies, the establishment of institutional barriers for the regulation of new technologies, and the clarification of the boundaries of the rational use of technologies. If there is no barrier to technology abuse, the networked use of this category of high-risk new technologies should be strictly regulated, because "new technologies are highly likely to lead to new types of wrongdoing in the future".
Yao Zhidou said that there are certain difficulties in regulating cybercrime. Evidence of cybercrime is mainly stored in network servers, and there are certain difficulties in collecting evidence in the face of complex and diverse forms of electronic data. In addition, it is difficult to determine the identity of the offenders, and some criminals are abroad, which brings challenges to the jurisdiction of the case.
In fact, in view of the risks brought by new network technologies and applications, relevant departments have stepped up efforts to rectify them.
One of the seven key points focused on by the CAC's special action, namely, to target the risk of new technologies and applications, including the use of technologies such as "AI face change", "AI drawing" and "AI one-click undressing" to generate vulgar pornographic pictures and videos involving minors; Using so-called "burn after reading" secret chat software to trick minors into providing personal information and induce illegal acts; Use generative artificial intelligence technology to produce and publish harmful information involving minors.
"This sends a signal that the state will increase its efforts to rectify the online environment and effectively strengthen the protection of minors online." Xie Ling pointed out that this special action aims at the physical and mental vulnerability of minors, aims to prevent minors' bad online use behavior, prevent them from becoming "tool people" for new types of online illegal and criminal activities, and is also a concrete embodiment of the implementation of relevant legal protection measures of the Law on the Protection of Minors and the Law on the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency.
Now, Li has also come out of the psychological shadow, she said: "I can't stop my love of life because of these things. ”
China Youth Daily and China Youth Net trainee reporter Liu Yinheng Reporter Xianjie
Source: China Youth Daily