Popular AI Platform Gives 'Bounty' for Passable Deepfakes of Real People

Online marketplace for sharing AI models, Civitai, introduced a "bounties" feature that encourages people to create convincing deepfakes of real people, as reported by 404 Media.

Bounties for Deepfakes

According to the report, bounties are posts that contain requests for specific AI models. For instance, people could post what style, composition, or even the specific people they would want to be generated as an AI model. The best-generated image will be rewarded with a virtual currency called "Buzz" which can be bought using real money.

After the launch of the new feature, many bounties have been posted on Civitai, with most of them requesting AI models of women ranging from celebrities to social media influencers. The 404 Media also spotted a bounty even for a private person with no significant presence in the public. Many of these requests often resulted in "nonconsensual sexual images."

Market firm Andreessen Horowitz reported that Civitai is currently the seventh most popular generative AI platform. Hence, these bounties are getting a lot of attention from people. The platform initially started to monetize this practice back in October. Following a user grants a 10 Buzz, while users can buy 1,000 Buzz for $1.

How Civitai Works

Users can train new AI models by uploading pictures of the person that they want an AI model of, for a price of 500 Buzz. Images used for training the model are often grabbed online through social media accounts. Once the AI model is generated, the picture is there on the platform for anyone to download.

Previously, 404 Media reported that while people use the platform to search for non-pornographic AI models, users can combine it with other AI models that are designed to create lewd photos.

An Instagram influencer shared that having a bounty on Civitai affected her mentally, citing that it was beyond hurtful. " "I don't know what measures I could take, since the internet seems like a place out of control," Michele Alves told 404 Media.

While it is technically against Civitai's policy to have bounty requests for nonconsensual AI-generated sexual images of real people, some people are still finding ways to do it. Previously, 404 Media reported that while people use the platform to search for non-pornographic AI models, users can combine it with other AI models that are designed to create lewd photos.