The internet is full of things. And when it comes to pornography, everything imaginable is there. And one of the most popular, is the amateur category.
For some reasons, this category can give the thrill because it represents normal people, not porn stars, engaging in the acts. The genre is also made popular due to the fact that viewers will never know which life person they may find in the video.
But things can change, as a Germany-based Chinese programmer claimed to have developed an AI algorithms capable of matching the faces of adult actresses with their social media profiles.
The programmer who purports to be living in Germany, said that his software has"successfully identified more than 100,000 young ladies", and compiled them all in a searchable database worth more than 100 terabytes
According to the creator, the project took about half a year to develop, and was conducted using an algorithms to crawl popular porn websites, to then cross-reference them against images found on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Weibo, and more.
In short, the AI can be given a few social media photos of any woman, and it would quite successfully determine whether she has ever done porn.
A Stanford political science PhD candidate, Yiqin Fu, first discovered and tweeted out the Weibo post
A Germany-based Chinese programmer said he and some friends have identified 100k porn actresses from around the world, cross-referencing faces in porn videos with social media profile pictures. The goal is to help others check whether their girlfriends ever acted in those films. pic.twitter.com/TOuUBTqXOP
— Yiqin Fu (@yiqinfu) May 28, 2019
It was reported that the creator only intended for the tool to be used by men who are engaged to women, where they suspect their future wives to have had a dirty past with some amateur pornography. The creator also said that the tool can be used by women who suspect that their explicit videos have been uploaded to the internet without their consent.
The AI and its database have garnered attention from users on Twitter and more, which many have openly criticized the intention behind such a resource.
And for obvious reasons, the alleged AI created controversies.
The claim has sparked concern among some who say the database will be used to harass women and out those who may appear in porn on the internet unwittingly.
In other cases, critics said, such technology could also be used to expose sex workers and porn stars (many of whom don't use their real names for privacy and professional reasons), and aid those who would seek to harass or extort them.
In the past, porn performers have dealt with numerous occasions trying to hide their private lives away from work.
Trolls and obsessed fans can do imaginable things to get to know their stars, doing anything they can to track down their real names, phone numbers, addresses, friends, families, hangout places and more.
With AIs, like deepfakes, people can start editing the faces of women into some adult performers' bodies, without their consent, easily. This is already considered an unethical breach of privacy, and also a misogynistic attempt at controlling women and their bodies.
But with the Chinese programmer's database of "young ladies" of porn, the effect can be terrifying to a whole new level.
The thing is that, when these amateurs do porn for a living, that still doesn't necessarily mean they want to be contacted by fans in real life. To many of them, professional and work life differ from their personal and private life, where they often maintain a separate personality or character.
While the programmer has not posted any actual proof of the claim, like his code or training database, or anything else, the programmer said that he intended to release "database schema" and "technical details" in the following week.
However, Fu's post has gone viral, and people started questioning this AI.
This is exactly that sort of things AI experts have been warning people about for years. AI by itself is not dangerous. But when we humans are so obsessed with the technology, we are literally giving ways for the potential of such tools to abuse others, to exist.
On May 30th, reached via Weibo, the programmer (who did not give his real name) insisted that the technology was real, but acknowledged that it raised legal issues. He said that he is sorry to have caused all the troubles.
With the fact that the AI exists, the Chinese programmer certainly won't be the last to have created such a tool.
Previously, the existence of the face recognition database has existed on popular porn streaming site. Pornhub for example, has been actively employing the use of facial recognition software to catalog performers.
While it said that the tool is meant to help viewers identify their favorite actors and help personalize the site's experience, but the AI also met with numerous controversies.