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An undressing app similar to the 2019 DeepNude and the is now in widespread use on the messaging app Telegram and was also found on the Russian social media platform VK. These undressing apps use artificial intelligence (AI) to create fake nudes.

Sensity AI, previously known as Deeptrace Labs, is a cybersecurity research company whose primary focus is the abuse of manipulated media. They performed an investigation and issued a report.

Undressing app discovered on Telegram messaging app

On July 11, 2019, a new undressing app was launched on Telegram, only a couple of weeks after an AI software tool called DeepNude was voluntarily removed from Twitter.

Sensity AI discovered the AI-based software was being publicly offered as a bot on Telegram. Unlike its 2019 DeepNude predecessor it had a simple user interface. 

A community of users developed around a central channel that hosts the bot.  It is allegedly connected to seven Telegram channels which are dedicated to technical support and image sharing. The image-sharing channels include interfaces that people can use to post and judge their nude creations. 

The seven Telegram channels hosting the undressing bot has a combined total of over 100,000 members. Although there may be duplicate across channel memberships the main group has more than 45,000 unique members.

Any Telegram user could send a photo to the bot and receive a faked nude back minutes later. This is a free service, although users are able to pay 100 rubles ($1.50 USD) for perks such as removing the watermark on the faked nude photos. 

At least 100,000 women usually girls became victims of the undressing app

As of July 2020, the bot had already been used to target and create unclothed fakes of at least 100,000 women, the majority of whom had not given consent and were not aware that their privacy had been invaded.

 “Usually it’s young girls,” Giorgio Patrini, the CEO and chief scientist of Sensity, who co-authored the report claimed. “Unfortunately, sometimes it’s also quite obvious that some of these people are underage.”

The Telegram community appears to have steadily grown in membership in 2020.

A poll of 7,200 users shows that roughly 70% of them are from Russia or Russian-speaking countries. The victims appear to come from many countries, including Argentina, Italy, Russia, and the United States. 

Sensity AI researchers reached out to Telegram and to the FBI. As of October 20, 2020 Telegram has not responded. 

Sensity AI also found a fake nude app on Russian social media platform VK. An ecosystem of 380 pages had the creation tool and AI algorithm to create and share deepfake nudes.