back to article DeepNude's makers tried to deep-six their pervy AI app. Web creeps have other ideas: Cracked copies shared online as code decompiled

From the department of closing the barn door after the horse has warped away at light speed, comes this latest news. Although the creators of DeepNude have torn down their slimy software that removes clothes from women in photos, the code continues to spread all over the internet. Some devs are even trying to reverse-engineer …

  1. Frumious Bandersnatch

    Irony of ironies

    ... at least that's what my wife calls it.

    1. Frumious Bandersnatch

      Re: Irony of ironies

      (in case anyone's asking)

      1. BebopWeBop
        Happy

        Re: Irony of ironies

        farbeit for us to judge (we will anyway)

    2. J. R. Hartley

      Re: Irony of ironies

      [Mark Zuckerberg has entered the chat]

  2. johnrobyclayton

    This is only the start

    Some ideas that will definitely crop up if they have not been built already:

    Chatbots that emulate children for the enjoyment of sexual predators. (These already exist in the hands of some law enforcement groups to identify and trap such predators.

    Deepnude+deepfake videos = Porn films with the subjects of your choice.

    Text story to Screen Play / Screen Direction conversion using AI

    Screen direction / Screen Play to video /animation with 3D imaging using AI

    Add force feedback

    Add them all together and you will have the full Startrek Holodeck Experience.

    It is inevitable that this will be used for any and all sorts of perversions along with entertainment, training and every other useful and culturally appropriate use.

    There will be grumbling and crying and gnashing of teeth but that is not going to stop the torrent of new ideas and technologies that will explode to satisfy any and all perversions.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: This is only the start

      I can see one other likely use : retraining the thing to do the same to men of all ages, with the aim of being able to embarrass and undermine prominent politicians and leaders of corporations.

      1. Charles 9

        Re: This is only the start

        Some people are totally shameless and will take insults as praise.

        1. BebopWeBop

          Re: This is only the start

          I could imagine some politicians (I have British ones in mind) would be most insulted if sensible conversation and realistic promises were substituted.

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: This is only the start

          That will all be "Empowering" "smashing the patriarchy" "striking a blow for the sisterhood" "showing these MEN for the ABUSERS they ALL are" etc

          Funny how sexism only works one way in the minds of most feminists, ditto the attitude that white people can't be victims of racism and racist violence, that working class white men living below the poverty line and with no opportunities still get treated as having "privelige" due to the colour of their skin, apply that argument to any other ethniticity and watch the "twatterati" explode in fury and go into full lynch mob "ruin their life" mode

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: This is only the start

            Feminism is ipso facto sexist.

            Just as the Association of Black Lawyers is racist.

            Once you start discriminating on the basis of color or gender, you are a racist or a sexist.

            Even if your discrimination is meant to reverse someone else's it still perpetuates the agenda.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: This is only the start

        That's pretty much the use people are complaining about. It turns out that some politicians and corporate leaders are female, not that those are the only people vulnerable to embarrassment.

        1. CountCadaver Silver badge

          Re: This is only the start

          The correct answer to any of these images is "I wish that <insert part> looked like that" "yeah like that looks real" "big whoop nurses, doctors have all seen it and half the population has those parts"

          I get some people would find it embarrasing, but trust me folks after urological surgery under local anaesthesia and knowing that a LARGE group of people (males and females of all ages and appearances) have seen your genitals and even more have seen them in a post surgery and borderline mutailated state (bruised, stitched up oozing wounds, post surgery infection - yeah that was "fun"....not) during numerous checkups.........the "oh my god folk have seen me naked" loses its effect on you and rapidly so, to the point I would just mentally add it to the lengthy list of folk who've seen my "private parts" and particularly when your told they found pre-cancerous lesions which they removed, it gets to be "meh"

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: This is only the start @CountCadaver

            Reminds me of when I had a retrograde IVP. An IVP is when you are given a dye orally so they can x-ray it as it goes through the urinanary tract.A retrograde is when the dye goes in from the other side via a catheter. I was given a valium IV. I said to the Doctor " but that's not a pain killer" He said " you are right, you just won't care any more" he was right. I could have walked out in the middle of the Super bowl stark naked and I wouldn't have cared.

            Of course once the Valium wore off I cared a lot. Tylenol Five didn't touch the pain.

            1. 404

              Re: This is only the start @CountCadaver

              LMAO! Just had colon surgery last week - had a cancer mass removed - found out a friend's mother saw my ass on the operating table... And I, for one, do not give a fuck, cancer levels all playing fields...

              Edited to say - yeah, doc blessed me with 12 TicTacs, (hydrocondone FIVES!) - understand the reasoning due to opioid addiction, affects on the bowels, but dayum! This thing HURT!

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: This is only the start

          Anyone who wants to see ANY of the following politicians in the nude (simulated or otherwise) needs help or sectioned permanently.....

          Donald Trump, Angela Merkel, Kim Jong Un, Scott Morrison, Anne Widdicombe, Theresa May, Viktor Orban, Xi Jinping (I wonder if he is in fact Winnie the Pooh with a human suit on), Mitch McConnell, Ncola Sturgeon, Ruth Davidson, Tayyip Recip Erdogan, Diane Abbott......and the rest....

          (sorry for the nightmare images that thinking of that lot nude has probably caused, AC so I can't be pursued for the psychological therapy costs....)

          1. Fruit and Nutcase Silver badge
            Trollface

            Re: This is only the start

            Politicians - well, they do make a habit of having things to hide, so, anything that chips away at that, and reminds them that they are human like rest of us, and not a different class/species.

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caganer

            https://www.caganer.com/en/

          2. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: This is only the start

            There is an apocryphal picture of a naked young woman purporting to be a younger Merkel sculling round the Interwebbery

            She doesn't look great even then.

          3. Sequin

            Re: This is only the start

            I have been made aware (ahem) of a video on various adult sites called "Hard BreXXXit" featuring "look-alikes" of Donald Trump, Teresa May, Angela Merkel, Nicola Sturgeon, Jeremy Corbyn and Dianne Abbot.

            Mind bleach is recommended

      3. Teiwaz

        Re: This is only the start

        retraining the thing to do the same to men of all ages, with the aim of being able to embarrass and undermine prominent politicians

        Most of our politicians are already huge dicks....

        Anyway, this idea is not new, artists have combined lampooning the establishment and porn before.

        https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:18th_Century_pornographic_cartoon._Marie_Antoinette_and_the_great_French_General_and_politician_Lafayette.jpg

      4. Tom 38

        Re: This is only the start

        retraining the thing to do the same to men of all ages, with the aim of being able to embarrass and undermine prominent politicians

        Alas, there is no readily available training set of "middle aged men in suits, clothed/unclothed, same pose", whilst the "attractive 20-30s woman, clothed/unclothed, same pose" is almost limitless.

        1. cdrcat

          Training data for clothed/unclothed men

          > Alas, there is no readily available training set of "middle aged men in suits, clothed/unclothed, same pose"

          Create a friendly female bot that asks for such photos on any social network, and I'm sure you would get plenty of training data!

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: This is only the start

      I've often thought technology can be used to prevent harm by giving people legal outlets for their desires, even if the act would be illegal with a real person.

      1. Teiwaz

        Re: This is only the start

        I've often thought technology can be used to prevent harm by giving people legal outlets for their desires, even if the act would be illegal with a real person.

        It somewhat has been, but since it has also been used to cause harm, and generates the fear that it might be in ways yet unimagined some groups want to ban it's use as an outlet (or any outlet) and pretend bottling up is not harmful and anyone who transgresses is an evil pervert that should be shunned.

        The permissive society does not permit.

        1. CountCadaver Silver badge

          Re: This is only the start

          "pretend bottling up is not harmful and anyone who transgresses is an evil pervert that should be publicy hung drawn and quartered and the same done to anyone they are related do"

          TFIFY

    3. e^iπ+1=0

      Re: This is only the start

      Maybe some kind of AR headset addon should be put onto the list.

      I can imagine people using a modern Google Glass equivalent being excluded from polite society.

      Red light on headset signifies disrobing processing underway.

      1. Teiwaz

        Re: This is only the start

        Red light on headset signifies disrobing processing underway.

        To be fair, it's been advanced as a reliable method to reduce stagefright and performance nerves for decades at least (although maybe not if addressing Parliament - it might exacerbate fear in this case).

        Might be argued to be a form of therapy.

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: This is only the start

      > Deepnude+deepfake videos = Porn films with the subjects of your choice.

      Content producers have been speculating/investigating this idea since deepfake emerged. Their aim has been to be able to provide custom videos for paying clients where the client is substituted into the video. This seems an obvious extension to their existing business model of producing custom content for clients willing to foot the bill.

    5. MonkeyCee

      Re: This is only the start

      I figured AI tailored fakes would allow us to truly live in our own bubbles. Tell the leavers we left, ensure they only see news that confirms this, tell the remainers we rescinded A50, then go ahead and do what you like :)

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: This is only the start

        Ah, I see. straight out of the 'what matters in politics is perception: there is no truth beyond what we believe' school of thought.

        Basically flying in the face of science and rational inquiry.

        I bet you 'believe' in 'climate change', too...

  3. Jou (Mxyzptlk) Silver badge

    What about a version that removes naval piercings?

    they turn me off. Or remove ass antlers.

    1. sabroni Silver badge

      Re: What about a version that removes naval piercings?

      How about you don't perv on people who don't want to be perved on?

    2. TeeCee Gold badge
      Headmaster

      Re: What about a version that removes naval piercings?

      Thank you for the mental image of a nipple with an Astute class submarine stuck through it.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: image of a nipple with an Astute class submarine stuck through it.

        With this hacked version I just downloaded, you can even make an image of an Astute class submarine with naked boobies, and not just a mere nipple or two. But actually it's just for a test of a new acoustic absorber technology, and isn't prurient at all. Honest.

    3. Muscleguy

      Re: What about a version that removes naval piercings?

      Why just piercings on naval personnel? Or perhaps you meant navel piercings? that would make more sense.

      1. Jou (Mxyzptlk) Silver badge

        Re: What about a version that removes naval piercings?

        I love my typos ;). Sadly beyond edit time.

      2. Sanguma

        Re: What about a version that removes naval piercings?

        For a moment I thought it read "nasal piercings", which would relate to the wife when she gets up one's nose, perhaps?

  4. Nolveys
    Terminator

    I have seen the future

    The new Rick Roll will be Thatcher porn.

  5. Long John Brass
    Paris Hilton

    Am I the only one who...

    Finds all the pearl clutching, tutting and harrumphing about these sorts of things a little tedious? Lets face it; An AI can now do automatically what used to take a skilled photoshoppe Artisan hours to do by hand!

    Sure; I can understand finding a photo of yourself neekid and on the te-interwebs more than a little disturbing. But surely at some stage we collectively need to say "Meh; I *wish* my boobs/dick (delete as approp) was that big".

    Wake me up when deep fake/nude can be run in real time and the headline is...

    Twitter thot making millions from pay piggies, turns out to be a 120KG trucker from Birmingham called Dave.
    *THEN* you will have a headline :)

    We as a species need to become a heluva lot more cynical about the things we see via photos & video

    1. NATTtrash
      Alert

      Re: Am I the only one who...

      We as a species need to become a heluva lot more cynical about the things we see via photos & video

      You got a point, and I would even go further... We as a species are acting all dignified, PC, cultural, and sophisticated, but actually are still driven by very basic things. Drop online that a nude pic or sex tape of <fill in your favourite yummy person> has hit the interwebz, and you got a viral webtraffic spike on your hands. Let's make a bold statement here:

      Most of the sweeping, fast developing advances in IT were driven by... sex and porn.

      Digital images?

      Digital video (streaming)?

      Video on demand?

      GPU developments?

      Online/ digital pay methods?

      (Picture posting) bulletin boards?

      Video chatting?

      ...and I'm sure grey bearded commentards here can come up with many, many more...

      Maybe I'm a bit too black and white, just for arguments sake, but I have no doubt that, if we look back over the years, we recognise more developments have been dreamt up by Willy Wanka in his Pr0n Factory than we care to admit. So is that a bad thing? Maybe yes. Maybe not. Or maybe we should be more concerned about the fact that we are trying to represent ourselves [still/ more and more]*** as something we are clearly not.

      *** Choose if appropriate

      1. jmch Silver badge

        Re: Am I the only one who...

        "Most of the sweeping, fast developing advances in IT were driven by... sex and porn."

        Completely this.

        Fundamentally we are all animals. Everyone's most basic needs, just like most animals, rank something like this:

        - air

        - drink

        - food, shelter

        - sex

        - most everything else

        Ranting inanely about the evils of sex ranks WAAAY down the list of human needs but somehow a few hundred years of weird cultural conditioning and we arrive at the puritans, who unfortunately are still among us.

        1. sabroni Silver badge
          Facepalm

          Re: Am I the only one who...

          Agreed. It only works on women yeah? What's the fucking problem.....

          1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

            Re: Am I the only one who...

            Methinks you should give some fan fiction a little try. Deep Nude is nothing compared with some of the goings on in there…

          2. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Am I the only one who...

            It only works on women yeah?

            I was thinking of trying it on the gleeful threesome, Boris, Nigel and Jacob.

            1. e^iπ+1=0

              Boris, Nigel and Jacob.

              ... sounds like a Moroccan tea party.

            2. Teiwaz

              Re: Am I the only one who...

              I was thinking of trying it on the gleeful threesome, Boris, Nigel and Jacob.

              They are already a bunch of tits.

          3. Carpet Deal 'em

            Re: Am I the only one who...

            Horny straight guys are the larger market, so it's not surprising that's where they focused their efforts. Once it's been cracked open, though, somebody can add the male training data without worrying about the ROI.

      2. NATTtrash

        Re: Am I the only one who...

        Jeez, and how could I possibly forget gaming? Although we do have to ask ourselves how many pixels we need be before it looses its appeal...

        1. Charles 9

          Re: Am I the only one who...

          You should see some of the fora floating around the Net. Not even gaming is immune as the two are often put together; both in mods and in dedicated games.

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Am I the only one who...

          Although we do have to ask ourselves how many pixels we need be before it looses its appeal...

          ObXKCD

      3. Grooke

        Re: Am I the only one who...

        As the saying goes, "The internet is for porn"

    2. Charlie Clark Silver badge

      Re: Am I the only one who...

      No, you're not the only one. However, it's become fashionable for techies to demonstrate how liberal we all are and shocked that stuff we develop could be used for teenage kicks.

      Personally, apart from the fact that a lot of clothing is designed to stimulate the imagination of the viewer, I reckon I'd get pretty bored of a toy like this pretty quickly. A bigger problem is probably the unrealistic expectations that kids may have of themselves and others due to all the cosmetic surgery: gravity defying breasts, dicks that horses could be proud of but with the staying power of a fox, and the kind of athleticism that should only be expected from Olympic gymnasts.

      Sex is an act but not a performance.

      1. sabroni Silver badge
        Coat

        Re: Sex is an act but not a performance.

        You're doing it wrong. Hey, a tragedy can still be a performance!

        1. Teiwaz

          Re: Sex is an act but not a performance.

          You're doing it wrong. Hey, a tragedy can still be a performance!

          How can you be sure you are doing it wrong?

          Or even right...

          The most instruction we ever got was rumour and unnuendo followed up by blind fumbling about until we found something that kind of worked*.

          TV exposure was always choreographed, porn scripted, the birds and the bees not an instructive guide and state education wise we generally had something almost little better than the Goodies Gender Education.

          * personally, I've always had attempts that more closely resembled the clown troupe at a freak show circus...only a couple of nights, no repeat performance, no encore and basic accommodations.

        2. MonkeyCee

          Re: Sex is an act but not a performance.

          It's more of a farce here, but it's good to laugh, right?

      2. Danny 2

        Re: Am I the only one who...

        The first good sex I had was with an American girl who said, "That was nice. All the other boys I've been with treat sex as a performance, while you just seemed to enjoy yourself."

        I chose to take it as a compliment though I still worried about 'all the other boys'.

        Thank god for the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul. I've been in enough sweat lodges, saunas, and on enough nudist beaches that an app that can put clothes on the internet is needed.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Am I the only one who...

      > Finds all the pearl clutching, tutting and harrumphing about these sorts of things a little tedious?

      Just sad to see sites like el reg that used to be tech sites turn into whatever they are now.

      No, this isn't "involuntary porn" and no it doesn't "make naked pictures of people". It just photoshops random parts onto someone's head and frame in a realistic looking way. The "AI" has no way of knowing what size or color a woman's nipples are, or other parts.

      The original creator used naked women because that's the easiest picture to find online to train the model for free. You can do the same with cats, dogs, men, trees, whatever you can find source pictures to train the model on.

      1. Danny 2

        Re: Am I the only one who...

        Nude dogs

        https://www.akc.org/dog-breeds/hairless-dog-breeds/

        1. Spanners Silver badge

          Re: Am I the only one who...

          Naked mole rats.

          1. Sanguma

            Re: Am I the only one who...

            Spike Milligan did say at one stage he was looking for a nude banjo player, but nobody knew of anyone who played the nude banjo.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    This might be a good thing

    If there's an app that can make clothed women appear naked, then you can't trust ANY pictures of naked women. All the women who wish they hadn't sent naked selfies to that ex boyfriend, or otherwise have real naked pics of themselves out on the internet they wish weren't out there have plausible deniability that those pics are fake.

    Pretty much would end "revenue porn" and hackers getting hold of someone's pics from blackmailing them into sending them more. They have no hold on the victims any longer if a naked pic of her can be trivially faked and everyone knows it.

    1. TonyJ

      Re: This might be a good thing

      That was my thoughts on this as well.

      It's a shame we live in a society where this kind of thing matters, but it clearly does.

    2. jmch Silver badge

      Re: This might be a good thing

      "Pretty much would end "revenue porn" ..."

      What would completely end revenge porn is if people stopped being so ashamed of their beautiful natural bodies. Shame is not natural, it's a learned behaviour.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: This might be a good thing

        That may be but once it is learned they aren't going to unlearn it anymore than someone who is mortally afraid of spiders or butterflies or whatever is going to stop being afraid. Your 'solution' does nothing for anyone over the age of 5.

        1. Teiwaz

          Re: This might be a good thing

          solution' does nothing for anyone over the age of 5.

          Maybe, but perhaps it's not too late for the under 5's to be saved.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: This might be a good thing

            Well by the time the 4 year olds are 14 where today's parents are worried their teens are sexting, maybe 2029's parents of teens will figure there's no point to worrying about whether they share real naked pictures since everyone will be able to download a simple app on their phone to nudify them anyway.

    3. katrinab Silver badge

      Re: This might be a good thing

      Except that I'm guessing these pics look like porn shots whereas real nudes tend to look more like bathroom mirror selfies.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: This might be a good thing

        Well OK "true porn" shots of a woman actually having sex are a different matter than being naked, but those are already faked with Photoshop (just ask any female celebrity) and they will get harder and harder to tell from the real thing.

        The point is that as all the technologies to fake pictures improve to the point where they are indistinguishable from real pictures, eventually everyone will have no reason to believe any picture that includes someone they know is real whether they are engaging in BDSM or walking their dog topless in a park.

        If a woman had a real porn/naked picture of her "in the wild" she would have much less reason to worry if her friends/family/co-workers/neighbors saw it, because there would be much less fear of consequences. You can't get fired from your teaching job when the school board knows the picture can't be proven to be real, etc.

        1. jmch Silver badge

          Re: This might be a good thing

          *walking their dog topless in a park*

          How long till we end up with celebrities *actually* walking their dog topless in a park and then suing anyone publishing it?

          1. Sanguma

            Re: This might be a good thing

            I feel for the dogs walking topless in public parks.

    4. techno-fobe

      Re: This might be a good thing

      Deny the birthmark, tattoo or mole that can identify you to an intimate partner? the app doesn't know whats under the clothing and imposes pre-determined images that while they may look real should you look at a stranger would be pretty obviously faked if it were of someone you know intimately ...

      I have tattoo's and moles that my wife would see and know it was me and vice versa, if a deep nude of me or her appeared we would instantly know due to the lack of known detail,

      That said, I'd also know if it was real .......

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    software that removes clothes from women in photos

    to replace it with fake skin underneath

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: software that removes clothes from women in photos

      don't mess with anyone wearing real skin

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    All we need now is

    something to generate boobs for creatures without boobs. And upright postures. Where was it that once had three million people and 158 million sheep?

    I'm sure we'll be faced with deepfaked deepnudes of sheep and people in flagrante dilecto

    The boy stood on the burning deck

    His fleece was white as snow ...

    1. Muscleguy

      Re: All we need now is

      New Zealand, and it was only 70million sheep. Now it's 4 million folks and only 30million woolly ovines. This is due in part to a number of lowland sheep farms being converted to dairy but mainly due to breeding and genotyping such that most NZ ewes now have twins routinely. Hence you need half as many breeding animals to maintain production.

      There's an old Kiwi joke that if aliens ever observed NZ from orbit they would see a large population of sheep being serviced by bipedal slaves kept in coastal pens, land and march up to a sheep and say 'take me to your leader'.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: All we need now is

        More likely they would talk to the dogs they see leading humans on a leash, who pick up their poop and carry it for them!

  9. Peter Prof Fox

    I'm impressed and worried

    The speed of reaction of the sub-culture is impressive. Just a few days and a complicated set of tangled 'problems' has been 'solved'. Why is it I'm worried that this energy, intelligence and enterprise will be used for better poison gasses than better drugs? Making and spreading fake news will triumph in any war against detecting and quenching fake news. It would be rather nice though if a new strain of a virus could be nailed in weeks and the logistics of dealing with a natural disaster could be solved in hours.

    1. Tomato42

      Re: I'm impressed and worried

      Dopamine is helluva drug.

    2. LucreLout

      Re: I'm impressed and worried

      It would be rather nice though if a new strain of a virus could be nailed in weeks and the logistics of dealing with a natural disaster could be solved in hours.

      Unfortunately, solving those problems takes more brain power and more time, than simply drawing tits on stuff. And the average or slow manifestly outnumber the smart or intelligent, so the available time balance is the wrong way around.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I'm impressed and worried

      > The Register poked around a few of these Discord servers. “We are happy to announce that we have the complete and clean version of DeepNude V2 and cracked the software and are making adjustments to improve the program,” announced one we found to its thousands of members.

      I love the way they are 'leet hackerz' but still use corporate PR speak "We are happy to announce..." when releasing the new version.

      1. baud

        Re: I'm impressed and worried

        Corporate PR speak is usually used for asking money; 'leet hackerz' when releasing sh*t for free

    4. The Indomitable Gall

      Re: I'm impressed and worried

      The problem here is that the problem solved here is one which has a known solution: what does a naked body look like?

      The cure for a new virus is now a known problem, so needs a different type of AI from one that can be trained to draw cats, nipples or beards.

      1. Sanguma

        Re: I'm impressed and worried

        "to draw cats, nipples or beards"

        I presume on the same person? The mind boggles. "Mummy, why has that lady in the picture got cats up there? Why has that other lady got beards instead of boobs?"

  10. Nick Kew
    Boffin

    Motivation

    I really can't see the motivation to use such software. I realise such motivations exist, but is it really anything sexual? I don't need to undress an attractive lady to find her attractive, and I have no possible motivation to do so unless it's my lucky day and she's with me in the flesh, so to speak.

    But to write such software is an entirely different kettle of fish. Visualisation is an interesting problem no matter what the subject. I've written scientific visualisation software[1], and it was certainly one of the more inherently worthwhile things I've worked on. As soon as news broke of an app being withdrawn, the intellectual challenge was there, and someone was bound to take it up!

    In my first term as a student, one of my courses was Group Theory. I picked up and solved a 'magic cube' that was a practical exercise in the subject - entertaining but in reality peripheral to the course. A year or so later those cubes had hit the shops under the brand name Rubik's Cube. Seems to me much the same kind of intellectual exercise as re-creating this software.

    [1] The context being satellite images. The visualisation software helped pick out many things, from seismic activity to pollution incidents to the phase of the tide.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Motivation

      "I don't need to undress an attractive lady to find her attractive, and I have no possible motivation to do so unless it's my lucky day and she's with me in the flesh, so to speak."

      Some guys have poor imaginations. Also, some find picture of skin a better turn-on than the imagination.

  11. Moosh
    Boffin

    Different strokes?

    Where's the version that lets me truss them up in leather and/or other materials and items?

    Also, what happens if the software is used on a bloke; can I send a friend a naked picture of himself as a woman?

    1. Adrian 4

      Re: Different strokes?

      There are a number of blokes (especially certain russian horseriders and orange american blimps) that would benefit from this experiment.

      Who's got a copy to try it with ?

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Just Imagine.....

    ....if anyone would be interested in watching our own T. May or Anne Widdecombe or Thatcher via the app, disgusting as they are, already ! (or any ugly duckling of your choice).

    Would be so disgusting, will put me off pRon for life.

    1. macjules

      Re: Just Imagine.....

      Now steady on there. Even Deepnude might have a problem envisaging a naked Anne Widdecombe. No wonder the ideal state of true A.I. is suicide.

      1. Danny 2

        Re: Just Imagine.....

        Choose one:

        Julian Assange's head on Pamela Anderson's body;

        or

        Pamela Anderson's head on Julian Assange's body.

        1. OssianScotland

          Re: Just Imagine.....

          Both require copious application of Mind Bleach

    2. Ken Hagan Gold badge

      Re: Just Imagine.....

      "Would be so disgusting, will put me off pRon for life."

      Sounds easily, technically, than age verification for websites. Perhaps our government should look into it.

  13. Mike Brown

    So thats why "on/off" pictures were so popular. They were teaching the machine.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I guess it's time Bucks Fizz renamed one of their songs?

    As above

  15. Ru'

    Please dear "woke" author tell me what is misogynistic about this app? Are points awarded for the use of such words?

    1. anonymous boring coward Silver badge

      Objectification of women, perhaps? Just a wild guess...

    2. baud

      It only works as intended (AFAIK, I've not used it) with women, so it's discriminating

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Isn't it just wokespeak for "straight"?

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hmm

    Is there a model that turns humans into sexy lizards and furries? :O

    1. John 110
      Mushroom

      Re: Hmm

      "...Is there a model that turns humans into sexy lizards and furries? :O..."

      Have you seen the Skyrim modding community?

    2. macjules

      Re: Hmm

      There's an app that turns all humans into mindless furry creatures and then allows them to endlessly post pictures of themselves for the viewing pleasure of certain select lizards.

      That would be 'facebook" to the rest of us

  17. Bronek Kozicki

    just use your imagination ...

    (*Y*)

    ) . (

    ( Y )

  18. Omgwtfbbqtime
    Boffin

    Devil's Advocacy LLP

    However look on the bright side...

    This has just made blackmail much, much harder.

    We have a video of you and (not your SO) naked together..

    It's a fake! Prove me wrong!

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    this whole thing is hugely complex & interesting

    On one hand I reckon this technology has certainly reduced the amount of effort required to humiliate another person - and possibly even ruin their career. In lots of institutions pointing your superiors to this reg article by way of explanation may well not be enough to assuage their concerns - "no smoke without fire" and all that.

    On the other hand if this sort of thing really takes off (and becomes convincing - I'd be surprised if the output of the above software isn't fairly rubbish) I wonder if it might have the opposite of its intended effect and actually ends up devaluing nudes in some general sense. This is an interesting outcome because it raises the possibility of actually making some human progress in terms of defusing some of our neurosis concerning nudity, sexuality etc. Though I'd be distressed if someone in my office sent an allcompany@ email containing nude pictures of me (fake or otherwise) I can't help but think that ideally this is something I really should be able to shrug off - and maybe this is easier in some future where "nudes" are trivial to produce and omnipresent. I'm not saying that the current victims of this sort of thing don't have a genuine complaint - right now given the state of human cultural neurosis the harm is certainly real. Just that if usage of this technology explodes in an uncontrollable way there might be a counter-intuitive silver lining.

    The "consent" part is interesting too. Personally I find the claim that its unacceptable to depict a given person "in the nude" without prior consent, even if said depiction is "fake" and purely for private consumption a bit strong. I don't think that we should expect to have a right to control all non-public depictions of our likenesses. That just seems crazy to me. I reckon the idea only gets as much play as it does because it supports a sort of stealth puritanism and if there is something that we humans love as much as other naked humans its chastising other humans for their interest in said other naked humans!

    I see a lot of people agonising over whether or not the real \ fake distinction is meaningful even if the fakes are "as good as the real thing". I think this is a bit of a rabbit hole which the concept of "likeness" gets you out of. For the purposes of evaluating your stake in your likeness the source of the image doesn't really matter - its accepted that you have a genuine interest in your likeness even if your ability to exercise control over it is limited.

    I think its fair to require consent before sharing or distributing said materials in public though (and I'd consider large enough groups to be public by the way) and if we end up with stronger laws around this stuff I'd feel most comfortable with legislation that targets the sharing \ distributing \ revenge posting part of this. There is probably no technical way of regulating this of course but there is REALLY no way of regulating the non-public production and consumption of non-consensual porn so this seems a sensible compromise to me.

    Overall though I think that more puritanical law is probably not what we really need - and I do worry about the effect that new legislation might have in "locking-in" nudity neurosis (both in the sense of our anxiety around nudity and how extra thrilling these images will be if they are made extra-illegal). Some sort of cultural shift would be preferable I think and maybe AI generated imagery starts to make that a possibility. I'm not confident though!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: this whole thing is hugely complex & interesting

      Perhaps the next step will be a system to be able to take someone's photograph (edited or otherwise) and use that to construct a 3D model of the person for use in whatever. Go beyond deepnudes and deepfakes and create deepscenes where you don't have to use existing material apart from creating the model(s).

    2. Graham Cobb Silver badge

      Re: this whole thing is hugely complex & interesting

      I'd feel most comfortable with legislation that targets the sharing \ distributing \ revenge posting part of this

      I'm not lawyer, but I feel what we need are laws against harassment, blackmail, etc. Not anything specific about porn (consensual or non-consensual, private or distributed). There are plenty of ways to intimidate or distress people with non-fake material and non-nude material (even a quote or a twitter comment taken out of context may be enough). And catcalling or racial or sexual abuse can be much distressing.

      Let the laws concentrate on the hard questions: such as to what extent intent is required, and how much distress is illegal, rather than on mechanisms.

      Of course, that would require politicians who are willing to put hard work into good laws.

      1. Charles 9

        Re: this whole thing is hugely complex & interesting

        Not even mythological politicians could solve the problem because it's all subjective. One man's insult is another man's praise, and the line between ribbing and harassment is both mobile and different from person to person. That's why defamation suits and the like are so touchy-feely. They're human in nature, so they can't help but be touchy-feely.

      2. Mark 85

        Re: this whole thing is hugely complex & interesting

        I'm not lawyer, but I feel what we need are laws against harassment, blackmail, etc.

        Err... many countries all ready have those laws in place and have had for quite a long time.

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    countermeasures

    "Please use your powers on worthy projects that move the world forward."

    Like creating an AI to locate the Incels that get off of this crap, and create deepfakes of them engaged in gay porn. Oops, not so fun now, is it boys?

    1. Teiwaz

      Re: countermeasures

      Alternatively, embed the christian produced version which dresses everyone into the core of a number of browsers image processing.

      Every image on the internet now gets rendered in christian evangelist friendly suit and tie - help, help the internet has gone mormon...

    2. Cederic Silver badge

      Re: countermeasures

      Wait? Did you just try and bully someone because they're _not_ raping women?

      You're strange.

      1. Intractable Potsherd

        Re: countermeasures

        Two straw-man fallacies in that comment, Cederic. First , there is no attempt at bullying. Second, nobody mentioned rape.

  21. Matthew Taylor

    Don't let a good crisis go to waste

    Of course the silver lining (for the depraved upper echelons who dread having their eyes-wide-shut parties exposed), is that any incriminating pics or video can now be blamed on teh deepfakez, and brushed off.

  22. LeahroyNake

    Glassholes

    Ooo I need to patent this....

    Google glass (anyone remember that?) for people that have difficulty with public speaking etc... I was always told to imagine the person you are talking to is naked, this makes it much more fun lol

    Joke icon obviously.

  23. Howard Hanek
    Paris Hilton

    Searching, searching. Always searching

    ...for that masterPIECE.

  24. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
    Coat

    So DeepNude carries on, despite the website going TITSUP (Total Inability To Supply Unsavoury Program ?)

    Sorry, couldn't resist. I'd better be going. The long brown trenchcoat, please

  25. This post has been deleted by its author

  26. druck Silver badge
    Coat

    Counter Correction

    Before I sent in a correction, the article read it substitutes the clothes for the naughty bits instead of the other way around. But I'm thinking that could also be useful - for example when you've accidentally wandered on to the part of the beach frequented by middle aged nudists - a pair of AI holo lenses that overlayed some bikini's before you coped an eye full of that, would be most welcome!

    1. druck Silver badge
      Happy

      Re: Counter Correction

      Only the one middle aged nudist out there?

  27. Dave Hamrix

    Isn't regular porn good enough anymore?

  28. NickTheGeek

    What about antisocial networks and Internet round-up engines?

    With all the respect to Andrew Ng, but I don't think this is "one of the most disgusting applications of AI". It might be discusting, OK, and also stupid, infantile, pervert and so on, but, personally, I find, by several orders of magnitude, more disgusting - and also dangerous - those criminal activities performed by some anti-social networks and Internet round-up engines which use AI to profile all the earth's population and trade those data. They also use the data to control and manipulate elections, political issues, they bring instabilities (political, economical, etc) throughout the world. Because of their round-ups people also remain without medical insurance (because they or their family members are profiled as ill or genetically predisposed for a serious illness, and therefore not profitable for insurance companies), house loan, without job,...People *DIE* because of that digital round-ups! And not because of fake nudity. And that's what we need to condemn and to stop, in the first place! Right now!

  29. earl grey
    Facepalm

    Does this do Futa?

    Erm, a friend wants to know.

  30. W Donelson

    Why would I need an app for this? My brain has been perfectly capable of doing this since I was about 10 years old.

  31. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I really don't see why it matters.

    Very few adults don't know what a nude human looks like.

    And if it's fake, then it's irrelevant.

    If it's real, it may be slightly less irrelevant. Maybe.

    And don't go on about 'children might see it' - the internet is full of the real thing already.

  32. Anonymous Coward
    Boffin

    All your nudies are belong to us

    We've come a long way from ASCII-art pr0n on the DecWriter III.

  33. Danny Boyd
    Meh

    What to fuss about?

    Lord created man and woman naked, didn't He? So dressing up (bar the weather conditions) defies His will, doesn't it?

  34. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Re. What to fuss about?

    Actually I beg to differ. Based on the divergence of head lice from body lice and other evidence it is generally accepted that the early ancestors of H.sapiens sapiens began wearing clothes about 83K-170K years ago. See https://www.quora.com/Why-did-humans-start-covering-their-private-parts-and-when

    Also relevant: the effect of clothes on sperm counts is measurable.

    Random: I give it about a month before someone adds the "Fundie Filter" (tm) to Firefox/Chrome/IE/Opera/etc to automagically add clothes to "inappropriate" images online.

  35. William Wallace

    Two words that have the potential to destroy lives and open the gates of hell if this app is ever used irresponsibly -- Ann Widdecombe!

  36. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Google Glass

    I see potential for Google Glass to come up with useful, sorry, distasteful features. Maybe it'll finally catch on. What are you staring at? Sorry miss, just day dreaming.

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