In a recent exposé, Wired magazine has uncovered a disturbing trend in artificial intelligence. The investigation, conducted on the messaging platform Telegram, revealed the existence of numerous AI-powered chatbots capable of generating explicit deepfake images of real individuals upon request.
The report estimates that around 4 million users per month are utilizing these services provided by approximately 50 different chatbots. These AI tools offer a range of capabilities, from digitally removing clothing from existing photos to creating entirely fabricated explicit images of people engaged in sexual activities.
According to Wired, some of these chatbots boast the ability to manipulate “anything you want about the face or clothes of the photo you give me,” highlighting the sophisticated nature of the technology involved. The ease with which these explicit deepfakes can be created – reportedly requiring just “a couple clicks” – has raised significant alarm among experts in the field.
Specialists are voicing grave concerns about the potential consequences of this technology, warning that it could lead to “a very nightmarish scenario.”
Henry Ajder, who was one of the first to uncover these activities on Telegram told Wired:
We’re talking about a significant, orders-of-magnitude increase in the number of people who are clearly actively using and creating this kind of content. It is really concerning that these tools — which are really ruining lives and creating a very nightmarish scenario primarily for young girls and for women — are still so easy to access and to find on the surface web, on one of the biggest apps in the world.
When confronted by Wired about the presence of these explicit chatbots on their platform, Telegram remained silent, offering no official comment on the matter. Interestingly, in the wake of the inquiry, the bots in question and their associated channels abruptly vanished from the platform.
Despite the removal of their original bots, the individuals behind these AI-powered services showed no signs of backing down. They boldly declared their intention to “make another bot” as soon as the following day.