An Australian man has been unmasked as an influential player in a new frontier of the artificial intelligence industry that harvests images of real women, without their permission, to create virtual influencers and make money.
ABC Investigations has identified a north-east Adelaide man as a member of an international network of these so-called "AI pimps" that is engaging in mass misuse of women's images to help sell porn subscriptions.
His activities, which leading intellectual property lawyers describe as "absolutely reprehensible" and not legal, involve creating faces with AI and then transplanting them onto videos of women's bodies sourced from social media accounts.
These creators then use the fake personas to encourage their followers to join subscription services like Fanvue, an OnlyFans-like platform where they can pay for pornographic images and videos of the AI model.
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Reporters: Kevin Nguyen and Michael Workman
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Graphics: Sarah Smaje, Sissy Reyes, Peter Matejcak and Ario Rasouli
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