In this day and age, if you fall for something like that, just refuse to pay and say you'll tell people it's an AI fake. I think the days of this sort of scam being very effective are over, or will be soon.
I was a teenager a long time ago, but I remember the anxiety and shame about my body that was involved in puberty.
It's a really, really brave teenager that's going to be able to front up with naked photos sent to his parents and friends and say "they're fake". And, of course, if they're not fake and one person finds out, everyone will know soon enough. This kind of stuff is what teenage drama is made of.
From the article: the photo included his pyjamas, which matched hers. How is an AI going to know the exact pattern of pyjamas he wore? It might, but even asking that question is a problem if you're the victim.
I don't think ignoring the problem and telling the victim to toughen up is helping.
Why do we keep thinking that people will wise up to AI-generated content just because it'll eventually be mass-produced and anyone can do it?
Anyone can write absolutely anything with little check and balance on substance, and MILLIONS still believe tabloids and headlines. We've been able to reliably edit photos/video/film for 80 years with an exponential increase in its efficiency within the last 30 - and we still have millions that would take a photo or video's substance at face-value.
You say that but I’ve yet to see an AI deep fake have any real impact so far. At least in the west, the political ones I’ve seen really haven’t got much traction and were quickly dismissed by the mainstream. Sure, there will always be idiots on the fringe who will believe anything that aligns with their current beliefs, there’s little we can do about that, but so far I’m surprised there hasn’t been an AI deepfake that didn’t fizzle within days. I guess we’re early in the game, so time will tell.
Many people have been taken in by "famous billionaire endorses bullshit investment" deepfakes, whether it's Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Warren Buffett, or Australia's Twiggy Forrest, Gina Rinehart etc.
The scams are real, the victims are real, it's in the global "west" and sorely under reported and the conveyors (Facebook, Twitter, etc) have washed their hands of dealing with it:
Andrew Forrest’s legal battle to hold social media giant Meta to account over the proliferation of scam ads using his likeness on Facebook has been dealt a major blow.
Robocalls aren’t effective anymore. Emails don’t do much except once in a great while. Mail hasn’t worked since the 80s. I have to imagine IM clients will lose their effectiveness for scamming the same as all the others.
The rule should be, do not reply to strangers that message you privately on any platform. If you're messaging a scammer back and forward you already lost.
Even if they had your actual real nudes, you not replying might even make a real scammer go "shit they don't check their messages", and move to the next target.
The thing is, it never makes sense to fulfill the demands of a blackmailer. The reason is that no matter what you do, the blackmailer either wants something from you, or keeps collecting more blackmail material until he can get something from you. They don't actually care about leaking your stuff and even if they do, they want to maintain leverage so they don't do it all at once.
It's a really, really brave teenager that's going to be able to front up with naked photos sent to his parents and friends and say "they're fake". And, of course, if they're not fake and one person finds out, everyone will know soon enough. This kind of stuff is what teenage drama is made of.
From the article: the photo included his pyjamas, which matched hers. How is an AI going to know the exact pattern of pyjamas he wore? It might, but even asking that question is a problem if you're the victim.
I don't think ignoring the problem and telling the victim to toughen up is helping.