Deepfake AI Porn Video Cases Surging in Greece

Cases of deepfake porn videos, created using online artificial intelligence (AI) tools, are surging in Greece with attackers turning photos and videos posted to social media into explicit albeit fake content.

Hundreds of the victims of these cyber attacks are underage students, according to Euronews, which spoke with cybersecurity experts in Athens about their findings from investigations in how AI is being employed to create fake sex videos.

In a video from the news outlet, Manolis Sfakianakis, founder of the Cybersecurity Institute, said “AI has made it easy for the villains. They find the AI tools that are very easy to use; they do not need sophisticated training.

“They take your photos, they take your face and place it into an erotic video,” Sfakianakis revealed. “They distribute the video on various platforms. Their goal is to take revenge, ransom, or just to have fun. We have hundreds of cases of children whose faces have been used for deepfake videos that have been distributed among school mates.”

The first case of AI being used to produce a fake porn video in Greece was reportedly three years ago. The victim was a minor, while the attacker was a classmate. In the Mediterranean country, privacy breach cases have tripled over the last ten years, and the government is readying a new law to eradicate deepfake material from the digital world.

AI deepfakes of sexually explicit content in other countries

Explicit AI-produced deepfake material is a phenomenon that not only affects Greece but many other countries around the globe, too.

Last year’s State of Deepfakes report revealed a sixfold increase in deepfake pornography from the previous year. The victims in 99 percent of recorded cases are women. Technology now gives attackers the ability to create a one-minute-long deepfake video from a single clear image in under twenty-five minutes and at no charge.

Every day, more than one hundred thousand sexually explicit fabricated images and videos are shared across the web. Referral links to the companies providing these images have reportedly increased by 2,408 percent year on year.

Britain is currently leading the way in anti-deepfake law in that it has criminalized the sharing—but not creation—of deepfakes. It also has some legislation which aims to bring more accountability to search engines and user-to-user platforms.

This protection does not yet exist in the US. However, a bipartisan bill was introduced in the senate last month. That would allow victims to sue perpetrators involved in creating and distributing such images.

Experts on AI-produced images agree that for the proliferation of sexually explicit deepfakes to be stopped, social media companies, search engines, and payment companies processing transactions must hit companies making such videos with financial penalties. Action must also be taken by businesses providing domain names, security, and cloud-computing services.