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| App that can remove women's clothes from images shut down | |
| (32 minutes later) | |
| An app that claimed to be able to digitally remove the clothes from pictures of women to create fake nudes has been taken offline by its creators. | An app that claimed to be able to digitally remove the clothes from pictures of women to create fake nudes has been taken offline by its creators. |
| The $50 (£40) Deepnude app won attention and criticism because of an article by tech news site Motherboard. | The $50 (£40) Deepnude app won attention and criticism because of an article by tech news site Motherboard. |
| One campaigner against so-called revenge porn called the app "terrifying". | One campaigner against so-called revenge porn called the app "terrifying". |
| The developers have now removed the software from the web saying the world was not ready for it. | The developers have now removed the software from the web saying the world was not ready for it. |
| "The probability that people will misuse it is too high," wrote the programmers in a message on their Twitter feed. "We don't want to make money this way." | "The probability that people will misuse it is too high," wrote the programmers in a message on their Twitter feed. "We don't want to make money this way." |
| Anyone who bought the app would get a refund, they said, adding that there would be no other versions of it available and withdrawing the right of anyone else to use it. | Anyone who bought the app would get a refund, they said, adding that there would be no other versions of it available and withdrawing the right of anyone else to use it. |
| The developers also urged people who had a copy not to share it, although the app will still work for anyone who owns it. | The developers also urged people who had a copy not to share it, although the app will still work for anyone who owns it. |
| Revenge victims | Revenge victims |
| The team said the app was created as "entertainment" a few months ago. | The team said the app was created as "entertainment" a few months ago. |
| This development work led them to set up a website offering Windows and Linux versions of the app. The program was available in two versions - a free one that put large watermarks over created images and a paid version that put a small "fake" stamp on one corner. | This development work led them to set up a website offering Windows and Linux versions of the app. The program was available in two versions - a free one that put large watermarks over created images and a paid version that put a small "fake" stamp on one corner. |
| In their statement, the developers added: "Honestly, the app is not that great, it only works with particular photos." | In their statement, the developers added: "Honestly, the app is not that great, it only works with particular photos." |
| Despite this, the interest generated by the Motherboard story led the app owner's website to crash as people sought to download the software. | Despite this, the interest generated by the Motherboard story led the app owner's website to crash as people sought to download the software. |
| Speaking to Motherboard, Katelyn Bowden, founder of anti-revenge porn campaign group Badass, called the app "terrifying". | Speaking to Motherboard, Katelyn Bowden, founder of anti-revenge porn campaign group Badass, called the app "terrifying". |
| "Now anyone could find themselves a victim of revenge porn, without ever having taken a nude photo," she told the site. "This tech should not be available to the public." | "Now anyone could find themselves a victim of revenge porn, without ever having taken a nude photo," she told the site. "This tech should not be available to the public." |
| The program reportedly uses AI-based neural networks to remove clothing from images of women to produce realistic naked shots. | The program reportedly uses AI-based neural networks to remove clothing from images of women to produce realistic naked shots. |
| The networks have been trained to work out where clothes are in an image, mask them by matching skin tone, lighting and shadows and then fill in estimated physical features. | The networks have been trained to work out where clothes are in an image, mask them by matching skin tone, lighting and shadows and then fill in estimated physical features. |
| The technology is similar to that used to create so-called deepfakes, which manipulate video to produce convincingly realistic clips. Early deepfake software was used to create pornographic clips of celebrities. | The technology is similar to that used to create so-called deepfakes, which manipulate video to produce convincingly realistic clips. Early deepfake software was used to create pornographic clips of celebrities. |