I Used an AI Tool to Nudify Myself…
I’m not gonna lie; I was angered, to put it mildly, when I learned of yet another awful way men attempt to gain power over women and their bodies, coming up with new and creative ways of violating them. But then again, I shouldn’t be surprised, as men’s actions towards women have continued to spiral downward even more over the last couple of years.
I introduce you to the AI nudification tool, a new form of ‘deep-faking’ designed to dress down women in photos, leaving them completely naked.
The software was initially made available as an app, but after heavy backlash, the creator removed it, saying he did not intend the software to be misused as it was. Gee, I wonder, what was he expecting it to be used for instead?
Oh, and a fun fact, this tool only works on women’s bodies, not men’s.
Since the app’s shutdown, other websites have sprung up using parts of the code from the original app.
Even when presented with something as foul as this, I couldn’t quench my curiosity as to how this tool operates.
I decided I needed to test it out. Obviously, since I know what my naked body looks like better than anyone else, I knew I had to be the guinea pig for this experiment.
I had to crop my photos, so only my body would be visible and not my face to protect my identity and privacy as best as possible since I don’t trust the websites on their data security promises.
Some of the websites state that the body should be obscured by the least amount of clothing to attain the best results.
So I went ahead and chose two photos for this experiment.
In the first, I’m pictured wearing a little nude satin dress; in the second, I’m wearing a bikini.
I wanted to determine the accuracy of the results.
For instance, will the nudified image show my actual body? Or just an ultra-realistic image of a generic naked silhouette that doesn’t resemble something that was photoshopped by an amateur?
I wanted to learn what spectrum these results would fall within. The site notes that its software functions by using vast amounts of data comprising nude women from porn sites.
Therefore, I wanted to see how much potential damage the software could create for women. For example, would the photo look authentic enough to be potentially used by people with malicious intent, such as blackmail?
In either case, this can hurt women and their public image significantly. If the results seem realistic, it won’t matter that the resulting photos don’t represent the actual woman’s body. After all, as long as it looks like a real nude, it holds power over women and their lives.
Understandably, I won’t disclose which websites I used for this experiment, as I refuse to propagate something like this.
During this experiment, I found that some websites were definitely more sophisticated than some of their counterparts. Those on the higher end used the same code as the original app. But, in comparison, websites on the lower end used a different one, leading to differing results.
In terms of results, it wasn’t as cut and dry. Once I started researching this software, I realised that multiple websites provided this kind of… service. While some performed as promised, others provided ridiculous, freak-show-level results. For example, some of the produced images had breasts stuck to my thighs and arms.
Other websites delivered better, realistic-looking results but blurred out the entire picture and only provided the unblurred version if I paid.
Eventually, I succumbed and paid to one of the websites that didn’t have an obscene price tag attached.
On the one hand, this, in theory, prevents just anyone from nudifying your photos, as there’s a barrier in place. On the other hand, people who choose to do this in the first place most likely possess extreme desperation; therefore, paying a few dollars won’t disincentivise them from using it.
In the end, the results that I got were mixed. The website that I paid for and used seemed to promise more than it delivered. After the payment, I had a photo quota of 10. The initial two images that I prepared beforehand did not work, so I had to use about 5 photos in total until I got one that seemed almost like a genuine nude. However, the giveaway of a tampered image was the blurred background. But the body itself appeared practically real. The good news is that, at least for this specific website, the right circumstances in a picture were crucial for it to deliver realistic results. It appears that AI’s confusion stemmed from images that had sections of hair on the front of the body. Then, photos in which the subject wasn’t facing straight, and finally, pictures in which too much clothing was worn, ultimately restricting the AI from mapping out the exact body lines.
Whilst I’m happy that the technology is not perfect so far; unfortunately, it’s evident that it will only get better and better in the future.
An additional horrifying factor that stood out was that these websites had queues in which about 100–200 people were waiting at some point during this experiment. It was unsettling to realise that so many people were ready to violate someone’s privacy, as I doubt that all of them gathered there for research purposes.
But overall, we must realise that this particular issue, as grave as it is, is only a symptom resulting from extremely deep-seated matters rooted in our society and people’s mindsets, particularly that of men.
Now let’s try reversing the well-known tactic that uses the “imagine it’s your sister, mother, daughter” argument geared to ‘humanise women’ in men’s eyes when we want men to understand our issues and to sympathise with us.
Imagine that this nudifying tool, which can undress any unsuspecting woman’s image, is used by your brother, father, son, or boyfriend.
Because, at the end of the day, the men who use these tools are the sons, brothers, fathers, and boyfriends of women out there.
In the end, it doesn’t matter. No matter how much we try to drill in the fact that women are people and deserve basic respect, by literally trying to do a Build-A-Bear with their minds to establish that connection between just any woman and a woman in their lives.
In the best-case scenario, they’ll think about it for a brief moment and move on to doing what they want.
Discussions need to be had, but trying to humanise us in men’s eyes is futile. It’s degrading that we feel we have to stoop to this level of trying to explain something that is just a mere fact.
We’re human; we’re people, regardless if we’re your mother, sister, or daughter. And our images are not for you to take and distort to play into some depraved fantasy of yours that provides you with a few seconds of gratification.
