We are in a new age, folks. And it's pretty terrifying.
While lonely men being scammed out of cash by fake porn sites is nothing new, the world of AI is making it easier than ever.
It turns out that a bunch of Redditors were conned into thinking they were paying a beautiful young woman for nudes, when in fact, they were speaking to a robot.
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The social media site was positively tingling with excitement when snaps of 'Claudia' began doing the rounds.
On the face of it, the risque pics looked like just that, teasing titillation for guys up for a thrill.
Sharing one pic to the site, the model wrote: "Feeling pretty today."
And several men jumped at the opportunity, claiming they were willing to pay Claudia whatever she wanted in exchange for a dirty photo.
One user said: "You're looking very pretty."
Another remarked: "You are absolutely gorgeous!! Will make a great trophy wife someday."
"Holy crap, you are beautiful," put a third.
Not everyone was so convinced, though.
Some were quick to point out that the photos looked a little off, a little too polished to be authentic.
"For those who aren’t aware, I’m going to kill your fantasy,” one person wrote.
"This is literally an AI creation, if you’ve ever worked with AI image models and making your own long enough, you can 10000 percent tell. Sorry to ruin the surprise I guess."
And it turned out that their Spidey senses were right, as it was eventually revealed that Claudia was in fact the creation of a couple of computer science students, who went by the handle 'u/Cl4ud14'.
They used a programme called Stable Diffusion, which is open to the public.
After the cat was out of the bag, some began asking the account to show Claudia's hands, because AI programmes apparently struggle to recreate lifelike digits.
For now, at least.
And according to the guys behind the scam, they made around $100 from selling pics before they were found out.
They told Rolling Stone: "You could say this whole account is just a test to see if you can fool people with AI pictures.
“You could compare it to the vtubers, they create their own characters and play as an entirely different person. We honestly didn’t think it would get this much traction."
One of their victims reportedly said that they felt 'cheated' by Claudia.
I think there's a lesson in this for everyone. Don't believe everything you see on Reddit.
Topics: Technology, Reddit, Artificial Intelligence, Science
Dominic Smithers