San Francisco city attorney sues sites that ‘undress’ women with AI

Written by Jesse Coghlan via CoinTelegraph.com,

San Francisco’s city attorney has filed a lawsuit against the owners of 16 websites that allowed users to “nude” women and young girls using AI.

The office of San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu said on August 15 that he suing the owners of 16 of the “most visited websites” that allow users to “undress” people in a photo to create “non-consensual nude photos of women and girls.”

A redacted version of the lawsuit filed in city court alleges the sites’ owners are individuals and companies from Los Angeles, New Mexico, the United Kingdom and Estonia who violated California and U.S. laws regarding deepfake porn, revenge porn and child sexual abuse material.

The websites are also not unknown. The complaint alleges that the site received 200 million visits in the first half of the year alone.

One website boasted that it allowed its users to “see anyone naked.” Another says, “Imagine wasting time taking her out on dates when you can just use (the website) to get her nudes,” the complaint reads.

Source: Attorney for the city of SF

The AI ​​models used by the sites are trained on images of pornography and child sexual abuse, Chiu’s office said.

Basically, someone can upload a photo of their target to generate a realistic, pornographic version of them. Some sites restrict their generations to adults only, but others even allow images of children to be created.

Chiu’s office said the images are “virtually indistinguishable” from the real ones and have been used to “extort, harass, threaten and humiliate women and girls,” many of whom have no control over the fake images once they are created.

In February, AI-generated nude photos of 16 eighth-graders, who are typically 13 to 14 years old, were shared by students at a California high school, the company reported.

In June, ABC News reported that Victoria police arrested a teenager for allegedly distributing 50 images of students from grades 9 to 12 attending a school outside Melbourne, Australia.

“This investigation has taken us into the darkest corners of the internet, and I am absolutely appalled for the women and girls who have endured this exploitation,” Chiu said.

“We must all do our part to tackle malicious actors who use AI to exploit and abuse real people, including children,” he added.

Chiu said AI has “huge promise” but there are criminals exploiting the technology, adding: “We must make it very clear that this is not innovation, but sexual abuse.”