There are signs the nudify websites are updating their tactics and approaches to try to avoid any potential crackdowns or evade bans. “Only when businesses like these who facilitate nudification apps’ ‘perverse customer journey’ take targeted action will we start to see meaningful progress in making these apps harder to access and profit from.” “Since 2019 (nudification apps have moved from a handful of low-quality side projects to a cottage industry of professionalized illicit businesses with millions of users,” says Henry Ajder), an expert on AI and deepfakes who first uncovered growth in the nudification ecosystem in 2020. For years — tech journalists have reported on how the deepfake economy has used mainstream payment services, social media advertisements, search engine exposure, and technology from big companies to operate. Many of the problems of tech companies allowing nudify platforms to use their systems are well-known.
This week, xAI filed a lawsuit confirming that it found AI porn guides and reviews instances of Grok-generated child sexual abuse materials (CSAM) and other nonconsensual intimate imagery (NCII) targeting adults. Chiu told Wired that allowing any such apps to remain in app stores is unacceptable. Chiu’s letter warned that app stores were violating “California’s laws that prohibit supporting services that create deepfake pornography,” Wired reported. The harmful AI tools allow bad actors to remove clothing, change a person’s features, place them in sexualized positions, and swap victims’ faces onto other people’s naked bodies.
In four applications, no login is ever required for the researcher to begin to generate imagery. All seven of these sites, and an additional three sites for a total of 10 — include text in their Terms of Service that state that a user needs consent from the image subject to upload their image to the AI generator. Seven of the 20 sites include text during age verification or before image generation that states that the user must have consent of the image subject. Our team additionally studied the consent-related text that users might encounter as they navigate the nudification applications as well as consent-related text in the sites’ terms of service — which users may not encounter but which are still present on these sites. 13 of these 17 sites show women without clothing but not in sexual positions, and another three show womens’ faces and bodies but include mens’ body parts as the women and men engage in sexual acts; mens faces are never shown. Recall from Section 3 that our data was collected from a region in the U.S. that does not have an age verification law for explicit content.
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OpenAI faces backlash over ChatGPT app ads disguised as suggestions
All of these websites were accessed from the United States of America for both the purpose of creating our database and analyzing the ecosystem. To encourage research efforts that may expose researchers to potentially triggering and problematic content, we hired a therapist available on demand and holding open office hours every other week for our researchers. By investigating the features of AI nudification applications, we can share and develop insights concerning these technologies that could potentially be exploited by malicious individuals.
On Thursday — San Francisco city attorney David Chiu sent legal notices to Apple and Google demanding that they remove from their app stores 13 face-swapping apps, which allow users to create AI-generated nonconsensual nude images. McNulty said mainstream software companies try to block and report illicit use of their programs, but some developers offer apps with no built-in safety measures. In the first six months of 2025, she said the tipline received 400,000 such reports. Criminals can extract payment or sexual favors in exchange for agreeing not to distribute nude images to victims’ friends — classmates or family members. The new law was long overdue (said former Sen. Lauren Book), a leading advocate for sex crime victims. The new felony punishment includes a prison term up to 5 years for each image and a fine up to $5,000.
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Among these are a proposal to devise an “action plan” concerning AI toys (several regulations targeting AI chatbots with minors), and a bill mandating that AI chatbots ascertain if users are adults, requiring parental consent if they are not. I’ve encountered comparisons made by individuals likening the creation of fake nudes without consent to sexual assault, and I firmly reject that idea. I am personally doubtful about any legislation aimed at the mere presence or use of “nudifying” technology (which can encompass general AI image generation programs), rather than focusing on specific actions involving these images.
My reflections on self-care were reshaped by a podcast, a sheet mask, and a closed door.
“They will likely continue to try to intermingle their operations into the adult content space, a trend that needs to be countered by mainstream tech companies and the adult industry as well.” While search engines direct people to nudify websites, the sites have increasingly received visitors from other online sources. Of the 10 most-visited sites (the research says), the most visitors came from the United States—India, Brazil, Mexico, and Germany make up the rest of the top five countries where people accessed the sites. Content delivery networks (hosting services), domain name companies, and webmaster services are all provided by a mixture of some of the biggest tech companies, plus some smaller businesses. Such intimate image abuse is harrowing for victims, and images can be difficult to scrub from the web.
Akerman Taps Ex-Amazon Counsel for New AI Governance and Data Protection Role
“When violations are reported to us (we investigate and take swift action), which in the case of these apps has included suspending hundreds of violating apps and restricting related search terms like ‘nudify’ on our store. ” They have previously removed dozens of nudify and deepfake apps, after reports by researchers and journalists. He praised the new law but noted that juvenile offenders — who may try to bully classmates by creating such images — often aren’t prosecuted criminally the first time they are caught. A sweeping new law in Florida makes it illegal to produce sexual images of a person using artificial intelligence or similar technologies without their permission.
Nonetheless (the two applications labeled as AI Face Swapping and Human-Assisted Undressing), which do not market themselves as AI Undressing tools, were found in the lists of AI Undressing resources we uncovered or were given. Our analysis initially centers on the features these nudification applications provide regarding the manipulation of an image subject’s likeness, as outlined in Table 1. In the second phase of our Light, et al.
In an April follow-up, the researchers deliberately used search terms like “nudify” and “deepnude.” They found 46 apps on the Apple App Store and 49 on Google Play. Michael Adler arrives at Akerman as the firm continues to place a heavy emphasis on generative artificial intelligence, both internally and as a service offering to clients. You can find him on Bluesky (sometimes), Instagram (infrequently), or eating Buffalo wings (as often as possible).
(FOX 9) – Hoping to slow the use of pervasive new artificial intelligence on unsuspecting victims — Minnesota will outlaw the use of nudification technology beginning Aug. 1, 2026. As OpenAI and Anthropic employees grow quieter online (researchers at Chinese AI labs are flocking to X to explain their work), recruit talent, and shape the global conversation on AI. “None of these apps are advertised as nudification apps,” the research says. (Google’s Jackson says the company has removed most of the apps identified by TTP.) Apps identified by the research were estimated to have been collectively downloaded around 480 million times and may have made around $120 million in combined revenues. Apple tells WIRED that developers are ultimately responsible for the content of their apps, and those who fail to follow the rules will have their apps removed.