…Researched and contributed by Solomon Thomas.
Lonely men on the internet were left outraged after being deceived into paying for nude images of what turned out to be an AI-generated woman instead of a real person.
On Reddit, a user named “Claudia,” claiming to be a 19-year-old woman, posted a number of suggestive images and offered to exchange nude pictures for money.
Several users took the opportunity, with one offering to pay for Claudia’s nudes and another lonely user asking her out, claiming to make a six-figure salary.
However, the truth was that Claudia did not exist; she was the creation of two computer science students who used cutting-edge AI photo generation software called Stable Diffusion to generate several photos based on the prompt “Without makeup with black hair, shoulder-length hair, simple background, straight hair, hair bangs.
Claudia was an experiment to test if people could be fooled with AI-generated images.
While many users on Reddit were drawn to the AI-generated beauty, some saw through the mask and commented underneath Claudia’s photos, claiming that she was an AI creation.
The anonymous students behind the experiment revealed that they managed to make $100 from lonely users before they were caught.
Many people across the internet believed Claudia was real, but some began noticing strange details in her photos, such as blemishes and odd-looking structures, which were previously overlooked.
Also, some observed that Claudia always obscured or hid her hands in her photos.
Experts have noted that generative AI often struggles to create realistic images of hands, resulting in terrifying images.
While Stability AI, the London-based tech start-up behind Stable Diffusion, prohibits users from creating “obscene, lewd, lascivious, offensive [and] pornographic” images with its technology, it cannot track how the software is used since it is available to the public.
Therefore, the incident highlights the need for stricter regulations around AI-generated images and their use.