You thought that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is taking away Jobs from you, believe me, it’s taking away more than that, your clothes!!! Yes! You read it right. An artificial neural network app developed by a tech enthusiast only needs to be fed with high resolution picture to replace it with “First best thing”, second being ‘Jockey’.
An app which has being doing rounds since March 2019 has now been exposed by mostly Chinese media and people. This app is able to undress a fully clothed person’s picture with couple of clicks, triggering concerns over the horror of such technology and the havoc it can create to people’s lives.
This no-ethics app in question is called DeepNude, an AI technology that superimposes faces onto other bodies. It can do the job both on photos and videos, allowing users to create revenge porn. This app DeepNude is a classic example of the new term coined in 2017, deepfake. One of the example of this app is as below:
The app was available for download on a website that was launched in late March, as per the Twitter handle of the app creator. Two versions, premium and free were available for the app.
The free version gives result of an image with a huge dartboard-like watermark. The premium costs $50, and is able to produce uncensored/disturbing photos with a clearly visible ‘Fake’ inscription.
Since it is an app so it was actually as few click use app. One does not have to be tech-savvy to use this sexually twisted app. Although it can be called an automated version of Photoshop. Users only need to upload a high resolution photo they want to “undress”, click on the button and wait for AI tech in the app to processes it, in a matter of 30 to 40 seconds.
For this DeepNude app to work only high-resolution photos of women facing the camera directly is a must, swapping their clothes for a nude body, regardless of what they are wearing. Other tests with images of cartoon characters, men, or people photographed from varied angles and image in low resolution or poor lighting conditions are said to produce varied results, from comical to outright disgusting. This also proves that it has been deeply programmed aimed at fairer gender only(sic).
AI has been in news a month ago for creating videos using a single image and now this DeepNude app has created a havoc. Considering the timing it seems to be in circulation even before the AI mastered video from single image.
This app currently runs on Windows 10 and Linux, whereas work on Mac version is in process.
The app creator identified or disguised himself as Alberto, said that his brainchild uses an algorithm called the Conditional Adversarial Network (cGAN). This cGAN neural network is trained to generate naked images after learning from a database of more than 10,000 nude photos of women.
As per Alberto “I’m not a voyeur, I’m a technology enthusiast,”. He said that he is “Continuing to improve the algorithm. Recently, also due to previous failures (other startups) and economic problems, I asked myself if I could have an economic return from this algorithm. That’s why I created DeepNude.”
Some of the reactions for this App around the World being quite scathing. Read below:
- This is an “invasion of sexual privacy” as per Danielle Citron, professor of law at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law.
- “This is absolutely terrifying, now anyone could find themselves a victim of revenge porn, without ever having taken a nude photo. This tech should not be available to the public.” said Katelyn Bowden, founder and CEO of non-profit Badass, which fights revenge porn and image abuse.
So called Alberto differed and insisted that DeepNude doesn’t make much of a difference and was no more harmful than Photoshop. The only difference is that this app effectively just takes more time to achieve the same results as Photoshop.
The website where the app was available is now down and as per the DeepNude’s Twitter account, the yet-unstable website was down due to an unexpected increase in traffic. Read the twitter comment below:
FinPinch take on DeepNude App:
Technology has and will always help the humanity, but at the same time it will create havoc if not used judiciously. Technology does not differentiate between good or bad, it is the humans that program it as such. We as humans need fixing, technology has always been an additional hand to one and all with no discrimination.
My goodness, where are we heading… disgusting