Best Deepfake bots on Telegram: What is it and How it Work?

Sensity company (Formerly known as Deeptrace), which specializes in AI information security, has discovered a network of Telegram bots that generate nude deepfakes based on arbitrary photographs of women. As of August 2022, DeepNude bots have generated photos of near 9.800.000+ women.

Examples of DeepNude’s software can be seen in repositories on GitHub: the incoming image and the result.

Over the past 4 months, the volume of orders has increased almost three times. The investigation showed that most clients are asking to take nude photos not of celebrities, but of their own acquaintances who are known in real life. It is possible that some clients of the service are teenagers.

Keynotes:

• Self-reporting by the bot’s users indicated that 70% of targets are private individuals whose photos are either taken from social media accounts or private material. 
• A limited number of bot-generated images shared publicly across affiliated channels featured targets who appeared to be underage. 
• The bot and its affiliated channels have attracted approximately 101,080 members worldwide, with 70% coming from Russia and ex-USSR countries. 
• The bot received significant advertising via the Russian social media website VK, which itself features related activity across 380 pages. 
• These findings also allude to broader threats presented by the bot. Specifically, individuals’ “stripped” images can be shared in private or public channels beyond Telegram as part of public shaming or extortion-based attacks.

On Reddit and other Social Media posted treads about it:

Most such messages collect a lot of interactions and comments from the audience. Many users point to poor-quality pictures. Which can’t really harm women.

Popular Deepfake Telegram Bot Names

• @DeepNudeChat_Bot – link2 (EN) – 5000 referrals only by this backlink
• @deep_nudesbot – link here (only RU)
• @fakenudes3bot – new (ES)
• @DeepNudeBot – is not allowed
• @deepnudebots – is not allowed
• @maloletki_v2 – is not allowed

A technology similar to DeepNude, the 2019 app that shut down shortly after launch, is now spreading unfettered on Telegram.

Karen Hao

This time it has an even simpler user interface: anyone can send the bot a photo through the Telegram mobile or web app and receive a nude back within minutes. The service is also completely free, though users can pay a base of 100 rubles (approximately $1.50) for perks such as removing the watermark on the “stripped” photos or skipping the processing queue. 

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The researchers also reached out to Telegram and to relevant law enforcement agencies, including the FBI. Telegram did not respond to either their note or MIT Technology Review’s follow-up request for comment. Patrini says they also haven’t seen “any tangible effect on these communities” since contacting the authorities.

On a local computer, DeepNude Soft requires a powerful system and GPU. However, the entire ecosystem of Telegram bots runs from online servers, so the service is available to anyone with a phone. This is one of the main reasons why bots are so popular, says Sensity.

Perhaps, this rather primitive “erotic” application was the first commercially successful application of machine learning for image processing. It reminds a joke that porn is the engine of technological progress.