The author, who works for Vice, recalls discovering deepfakes in 2017 and notes that they have primarily been used to harass women. The article discusses a new type of AI-generated image called "subtlefakes," which are convincing but not as overtly offensive as deepfakes. According to the author, subtlefakes involve subtly editing images of celebrities to make them more revealing or provocative, often by altering their clothing or body shape. Since 2017, there has been an exponential advancement in AI technology and a growing sophistication among those using it maliciously, the author suggests.
Written by the local model on 2026-08-24,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
I can clearly remember the first time I saw a deepfake.
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I → remember → deepfake
I was waiting for the train on my way to the Vice office in 2017 when I got a Twitter DM from someone who saw it posted to Reddit.
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it → wait → Reddit
It was a short .gif from the start of a porn video, showing a woman lying on a bed and talking to the camera, only the woman’s face had been edited to look like Gal Gadot.
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face → show → Gadot
The deepfake was shockingly realistic for the time, and as Sam’s reporting on it from that day on has shown, deepfakes have primarily been used to harass and degrade women.
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deepfakes → show → women
We were surprised by how advanced the technology seemed at the time and knew that the internet and the law wasn’t prepared to deal with it.
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internet → surprise → it
The technology has advanced exponentially since then, and the internet and the law has still not caught up to it.
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internet → advance → it
But as concerning as deepfakes clearly were the moment we laid eyes on them, the problem was never that we thought Gal Gadot actually made an adult video.
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Gadot → lay → video
Deepfakes can look convincing, but they never fooled us that what we were seeing was real.
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seeing → look → what
But for the past few months I’ve been looking at a new and strange type of AI generated nonconsensual image on X that I think will fool a lot of people.
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I → look → people
These images, which I’ve started calling subtlefakes, are not as clearly offensive, but they are a lot more convincing.
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they → start → which
The concerning implication is that it’s not just the technology that is advancing now, but that the people who wield it maliciously are getting more sophisticated.
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who → ’ → it
Much like “cheap fakes,” which in 2019 Data & Society described as an edited piece of media that manipulates the truth without requiring AI or any other advanced technology, subtlefakes are another form of synthetic media that has taken over the internet since the emergence of deepfakes in 2017.
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that → describe → 2017
These more convincing images are not AI generated nudes of celebrities or face-swapped identities onto porn videos, but AI generated images of celebrities that are subtly edited to make them more revealing or provocative.
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them → generate → celebrities
We’ve written countless stories about AI generated nonconsensual media of celebrities and non celebrities.
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We → write → celebrities
It’s a form of harassment that causes psychological and material damage to people, and they don’t have to be believable to do that.
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they → ’ → that
Even if the image looks photorealistic, it is often clearly fake for the simple reason that it’s unlikely that the biggest actor in the world would suddenly produce hardcore pornography that’s posted by a random account to X.
The images I’ve been seeing lately are often only slightly altered.
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I → look → X.
One type of image, for example, will edit a real photograph of a famous actor walking a red carpet, but edit it to make her dress more revealing or to make her butt or boobs bigger.
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butt → edit → it
Another type is entirely AI-generated post-workout selfies at the gym.
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type → generate → gym
The only example I feel totally comfortable sharing is one that was called out and shared by the target of one of these fakes, actor Xochitl Gomez.
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that → feel → fakes
As a side-by-side she shared on Instagram shows, someone had taken a real photograph of her at a parking lot, looking over her shoulder and smiling at the camera, and used AI to make it look like she was bending over in one image and putting her hand on her butt in the other.
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she → share → other
Similarly, someone had taken an image of her on a red carpet and used AI to make it seem like she’s turning her back to the camera and sticking her tongue out.
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she → take → tongue
These images are not just photorealistic, they also don’t have the usual context clues we’ve come to expect from nonconsensual images.
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we → have → images
I think I am very good at spotting AI generated images because it’s a big part of what we do here, and I don’t think I could tell these were AI generated if I was just scrolling on X.
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I → think → X.
These images are almost always posted by verified engagement farming accounts on X, which pays the people who operate them if their posts get enough impressions.
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posts → post → impressions
X obviously doesn't care if people are doing this and a bunch of other stuff that’s as bad or worse.
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that → care → stuff
I’ve seen at least one account that shared a few of these subtle deepfakes, but when I scrolled down their post history I found nonconsensual fully nude and sexual images that they monetized via other platforms, so that’s another reason why X accounts might be doing this.
uncertain
accounts → see → this
There are many, many accounts like this and they are earning millions of views.
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they → be → views
I think it’s interesting because it’s a new, and as far as I know, yet to be covered use of nonconsensual AI images.
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I → think → images
It’s also important and in the public’s interest to know it’s happening because people should know what kind of AI content is targeting them, especially if it’s at the expense of other people.
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it → ’ → people
It’s also possibly a warning sign for how people’s AI use is evolving from abusive but obviously fake, to more subtle, less offensive, but much harder to detect.
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use → ’ → subtle
The other reason these types of images are going to be harder to moderate is that it’s easier to produce them.
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it → go → them
There are plenty of services that let people easily AI generate nonconsensual nudes of anyone, but they almost always involve some friction.
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they → be → friction
People have to go to a sketchy site, install a sketchy app, or pay a small fee.
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People → have → fee
As we’ve reported many times in the past, more easily accessible AI generators from tech giants can be manipulated to produce nonconsensual images as well, but generally speaking, most companies are trying to prevent people from making those images with their tools.
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companies → report → tools
While it’s not impossible, it does require some effort to bypass those guardrails.
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it → ’ → guardrails
It is not so hard to bypass those guardrails if the nonconsual images people are producing don’t include any nudity or sexual acts, assuming the AI generator is even design to prevent those type of images.
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generator → bypass → images
Most mainstream AI generation tools at least try to prevent people from generating any type of nudity.
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tools → try → nudity
Fewer of them try to prevent people from generating the likeness of a real person.
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Fewer → try → person
I can’t say for certain where most of the subtlefakes I’ve seen come from, but I know that at least some of them were made with X’s own Grok because some images included the Grok watermark.
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images → say → watermark
X has repeatedly been caught enabling nonconsensual images and only attempting to do something about it after public outrage.
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X → catch → outrage
…and 19 more, not listed.
