GitHub crackdown on deepfake porn still not working

“When we look at intimate image abuse, the vast majority of tools and weaponized uses come from the open source space,” says Agder. But he says they often start with well-intentioned developers. “Someone creates something they think is interesting or cool, and a person with bad intentions realizes its malicious potential and uses it as a weapon.”

Some, like the repository that was disabled in August, have purpose-built communities for explicit uses. Agder claims that this model has positioned itself as a tool for deep porn, becoming a “suppression” for abuse, mostly targeting women.

More videos uploaded To the porn streaming site By an account credited to AI models downloaded from GitHub, it featured the faces of famous deepfake targets, celebrities Emma Watson, Taylor Swift, and Anya Taylor-Joy, as well as other lesser-known but very real women, superimposed into sexual situations.

The creators freely described the tools they used, including two that were scrubbed by GitHub but whose code still exists in other existing repositories.

Deepfakes perpetrators are gathering in many places online, including secret community forums on Discord and in plain sight on Reddit, doubling down on attempts to prevent deepfakes. One Redditor offered his services using the archived repository software on September 29. Another asked: “Can someone do this to my cousin?”

Torrents from the main repository that GitHub banned in August are also available in other corners of the web, showing how difficult it is for police to monitor Open source deepfake software In all fields. Other porn tools have been used for deepfakes, such as the DeepNude app Likewise taken down Before new versions appear.

“There are so many models, so many different ramifications in the models, so many different versions, and it can be difficult to keep track of them all,” says Elizabeth Seager, director of digital policy at the cross-party think tank Demos in the UK. “Once an open source model is available to the public for download, there is generally no way back,” she adds.

A deepfake porn creator with 13 explicit doctored videos of female celebrities has credited a prominent GitHub repository marketed as a “NSFW” version of another project that encourages responsible use and explicitly asks users not to use it for nudity. “Learn all available Face Swap AI from GitHUB, without using online services,” their Tube profile cheekily says.

GitHub had already disabled this NSFW version when WIRED identified the deepfake videos. But other repositories labeled as “unlocked” versions of the model were available on the platform on January 10, including one containing 2,500 “stars.”

“It’s technically true that once (the pattern) occurs it can’t be reversed. But we can still make it harder for people to access these services,” Seger says.

She adds that if left unchecked, the potential for harm from deep-rooted “pornography” is not just psychological. Its indirect effects include intimidation and manipulation of women, minorities, and politicians, as we saw previously Political deepfakes It affects politics around the world.

But it’s not too late to get the problem under control, and platforms like GitHub have options, Seager says, including intervening at the point of upload. “If you put a form on GitHub and GitHub says no, and all the hosting platforms say no, it becomes difficult for the average person to get that form.”

Curbing deep porn made using open source models also depends on policymakers, tech companies, developers, and of course the creators of offensive content themselves.

At least 30 US states also have some legislation addressing deep porn, including bans, according to the nonprofit Public Citizen’s. Legislation trackerAlthough definitions and policies vary, some laws cover minors only. Deepfake creators in the UK will soon feel the force of the law following the government’s announcement Criminalizing the creation of fake sexually explicit videosas well as her participation on January 7.