when artificial intelligence multiplies pornographic deepfakes

Faced with this worrying phenomenon, the public authorities are raising their voices. The creators and disseminators of these hyperrealistic montages could soon be punished by law.

The phenomenon is growing and worrying: false pornographic content, created via artificial intelligence, from a photo of a personality or even an ordinary person, called deepfakes, is increasingly disseminated. Hyperrealistic montages, whose victims are most often women, especially those who have visibility on networks, influencers, or YouTubers like Juju Fitcats.

Justine, her real first name, is 28 years old and makes videos to talk about fitness or nutrition but on several occasions, malicious people have faked her photos from her Instagram, fake, hyper-realistic nudes. “It’s very disturbing because people take real photos that we have posted and are able to use the technologies that exist to completely modify this photo, by removing my clothes, by recreating my breasts…”she explains.

“We’re going to take my head and put it on the body of a porn actress having sex with a partner. It’s so well done sometimes that you couldn’t imagine for a second that in fact, I was in previously dressed in the photo.”

Juju Fitcats, YouTuber

at franceinfo

This is what we call deepfakes of a sexual nature: photos and even videos generated or retouched by artificial intelligence tools.

And the phenomenon is becoming more and more common thanks to technological advances. It has always existed of course, even with scissors and a tube of glue, you can cut out, edit, make an image say anything, but what is new, as explained by Tina Nikoukhah, researcher in image processing at ENS Paris-Saclay, it is the hyperrealism enabled by progress in artificial intelligence. “Visually, a few years ago, gluing someone’s face correctly so that it matched the body was difficult to do. There has been progress in this area. But now, it’s yet different: it is not necessarily someone else’s body, it is an invented body, from thousands of bodies learned by the software“, deciphers the specialist.

“The difference today is that we don’t need to have hours and hundreds of videos of a person: a single photo is enough.”

Tina Nikoukhah, image processing researcher

at franceinfo

“Worse than thatcontinues the researcher: we take a photo of someone in the street, we put it in this application and we have a version of the person undressed. It is within everyone’s reach. Unfortunately, anyone can create them. The youngest are even more geeky and therefore very comfortable with this type of tool.” There is actually no need to have a degree in cybernetics. We did the test with one of these online tools. In three clicks, we were able to undress someone for free, based on a photo taken from the Internet. Then, the service quickly becomes paid for.

8,000 cases of “sextortion” in France in 2023

Anyone can now be a victim of such trickery. There was a case this fall in Spain: around twenty teenage girls saw pornographic photomontages with their faces, generated via artificial intelligence, circulating on WhatsApp loops. The suspects were their classmates. Average age: 13 years old.

Young people are therefore particularly vulnerable. In France, the Office for Combating Violence Against Minors (Ofmin) confirms to us that the process is already used by child criminals for sexual blackmail. The scale of the phenomenon is difficult to quantify, but if we combine deepfakes and very real content, 8,000 cases of “sextortion” have been reported to this organization since the beginning of 2023. Two lawyers, moreover, We have confirmed cases of “ordinary citizens” victims of these photomontages, including a thirty-year-old, trapped by a work colleague. She did not wish to testify. It remains very taboo, precisely because few cases, for the moment, are publicized.

To fight against deepfake, it is better to distribute as few photos of yourself as possible online. In his bill on digital security currently being debated in Parliament, Minister Jean-Noël Barrot added an amendment precisely so that the dissemination of this fake content becomes an offense. “96% of hyperfakes are porn deepfakes and women are targeted in 99% of cases, reports the minister. There was therefore an urgent need to act. It was a blind spot in our law. We are going to hit harder: two years of imprisonment and a fine of 60,000 euros.”he announces.

The minister also intends to put pressure back on platforms, such as Google or Telegram. It remains to be seen whether they will play their role of signaling and moderating this content, as the new European rules impose on them.