AI-powered ‘disrobing’ websites are being sued

The San Francisco City Attorney’s Office is suing 16 of the most-visited AI-powered “nude” websites, often used to create nude deepfakes of women and girls without their consent. a precedent-setting lawsuitannounced in City Attorney David Chiu’s press conferencereports that in the first half of 2024 alone, the targeted websites were visited a total of over 200 million times.

The offending websites allow users to upload photos of real, fully clothed people who are then digitally “undressed” using AI tools that simulate nudity. One of the websites, which was not identified in the complaint, reportedly advertises: “Imagine wasting your time taking her on dates when you could just use [the redacted website] to get her nudes.”

The website operators are accused of violating state and federal laws prohibiting revenge pornography, deepfake pornography and child pornography, as well as California’s unfair competition law, because “the harm they cause to consumers far outweighs any benefits associated with these practices,” according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit seeks civil penalties, in addition to taking the websites offline and permanently barring their providers from creating future deepfake pornography.

“This investigation has taken us to the darkest corners of the internet and I am horrified for the women and girls who have had to endure this abuse.” Chiu said on X“This is a big, multi-faceted problem that we, as a society, need to solve as soon as possible.”