The internet is a public space, which is why it's crucial for users to keep certain personal information private and avoid sharing it online, regardless of the situation. This includes, but is not limited to, usernames and passwords for online accounts, financial details, home addresses, personal phone numbers, and email addresses.
Additionally, personal aspects of one's life, such as intimate desires, should remain private, shared only with trusted partners or kept within personal boundaries.
In the event of a security breach, sharing such sensitive information can lead to it falling into the wrong hands, potentially causing serious harm.
This is exactly what happened to users on a website called Muah.ai.
Muah.ai is a platform that allows users to create their own "uncensored" AI-powered companions. After registering with an email and logging in, users can choose from a selection of pre-made bots or those created by the community.
Alternatively, users can customize their own AI companion to match their preferences, crafting the 'ideal' partner. By filling out specific fields, users can shape the chatbot’s personality and characteristics, including fulfilling sexual fantasies.
However, this is where things can take a concerning turn, as boundaries may be crossed.
Based on the fantasies users feel safe sharing on the platform, reports indicate that many create chatbots to engage in consensual sex fantasies, which is likely common.
However, the scenarios extend into more extreme and troubling territory.
Users have been reported to create AI companions for kinkier, fetish-oriented fantasies, including scenarios of sexual domination or submission, being used as a "sex slave," tortured by a sadistic wrestler, and even non-consensual fantasies.
Disturbingly, there has also been at least one instance involving roleplay related to child abuse, highlighting serious ethical concerns.
Read: How 'Customizable' Pornography Made By Artificial Intelligence Can Disrupt Online Pornography
While these fantasies alone may not seem immediately harmful, the real danger arises when this sensitive information is tied to identifiable details. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened, as many of these prompts were linked to users' email addresses.
What makes this worse is that many of the email addresses appear to be personal accounts, often including users' real names.
To make matters even more alarming, hackers have reportedly stolen a massive database containing users' interactions with their custom chatbots, exposing their private fantasies alongside their personal information. This breach presents serious risks to the privacy and security of those involved.
In the leak, the data under char refers to the generated AI character, and user is the person interacting with it.
Some of the data contains explicit references to underage people, including the sexual abuse of toddlers and incest with young children.
For example, there is at least one prompt that described sex with "newborn babies" and "young kids."
While it's not entirely clear if Muah.ai's AI delivered a response that reflected what the user was looking for, but the data shows what people are trying to use the platform for.
And based on the leaks, the information are not supposed to be public because many of them can be disturbing.
In an interview with 404 Media, the hackers said that:
"It's basically a handful of open-source projects duct-taped together. I started poking around and found some vulnerabilities relatively quickly. At the start it was mostly just curiosity but I decided to contact you once I saw what was in the database."
In response to the hack, the administrator of Muah.ai, who used the name Harvard Han, said that "the data breach was financed by our competitors in the uncensored AI industry who are profit driven, whereas Muah AI becomes a target for being a community driven project."
The site’s operators detected that it was hacked, but at first they saw no damage was done.
It's worth noting that Muah.ai is just one out of the many AI relationship bots out there, most of which were created after the boom of generative AI, kickstarted by OpenAI after releasing ChatGPT.
While some popular AI companion platforms backed by venture capital revolve around huge capital and huge user base, and that they have a strict policy forbidding any sexual content, others are more NSFW and porn-related.
Muah.ai itself bills itself as an “uncensored” platform for building AI chatbots, explicitly allowing sexual conversations and photos.