Someone has created an app that uses neural networks to remove women’s clothing from images where they are fully dressed. Using deepfake technology – a type of AI-assisted video and photo editing – the app can take images of women uploaded by users and turn them into convincingly realistic nudes. 

We’ve already seen how deepfake videos can put words into the mouths of people who never said them – perhaps most notably in this video of Mark Zuckerberg that did the rounds recently, showing the tech billionaire admitting to being in control of millions of people’s stolen data – now the technology is being used to generate believable fake nudes of women.

Motherboard investigated the app, which swaps clothes for naked breasts and a vulva, and found that it only worked on women. When it was tried with a man it simply “replaced his pants with a vulva.” After testing the tool, which was available for download via their website, on dozens of images, Motherboard found that it worked most successfully with images that already have areas of skin showing. 

Katelyn Bowden, founder and CEO of revenge porn activism organisation Badass, told Motherboard: “This is absolutely terrifying, now anyone could find themselves a victim of revenge porn, without ever having taken a nude photo. This tech should not be available to the public.”

The DeepNude website states that: “Both the free and the premium versions have watermarks that cover the face, clearly marking that it is a fake.” The programmers behind the website – currently offline due to a server overload following recent publicity – also claim to be working on a male version of the app. 

Read our piece on the terrifying deepfake tool that lets you put words into people’s mouths here.