Japanese man uses AI to 'de-pixelate' censored porn before getting arrested

Noellie Mautaint October 23, 2021 at 10:00 am

This is a somewhat unusual arrest. In Japan, a 43-year-old man was arrested for removing pixels from censored pornographic videos using artificial intelligence.

This is a first for the country of the Rising Sun where no regulations exist on deepfakes. Lacking the law, authorities are suing the man for copyright infringement and obscenity.

He uses an AI to recreate genitals

Deepfakes are now commonplace on the web. This practice, consisting of changing the face of one body to another, continues to be emulated, particularly in the world of pornography. Many personalities have seen their faces associated with the bodies of actors and actresses in adult films without their consent. However, a Japanese man used similar technology to create deepfakes of a different kind.

Masayuki Nakamoto, a 43-year-old man living in Hyōgo prefecture, used artificial intelligence to reconstruct the pixelated parts of pornographic images and videos. In other words, the man was selling on his website deepfakes of genitals, which are constantly censored in porn movies because of the local obscenity law which prohibits any representation of the sexes, male or female. The man used the TecoGAN tool, specialized in improving the definition of images, to achieve this result.

No such law in Japan

The interested party would have earned almost 11 million yen (about 83,000 euros) by reselling more than 10,000 fake videos. However, Nakamoto was arrested on Monday October 18 by the Japanese authorities for only 10 of these images, which sold for around 17 euros each. “This is the first case involving the use of AI in Japan. For the moment, there is no law that penalizes the use of artificial intelligence to create such images, ”recalls Daisuke Sueyoshi, specialist in cybercrime.

Indeed, the case being one of a kind and in the absence of a law on deepfakes, the authorities are suing him for obscenity and copyright infringement. The man pleaded guilty to all counts and admitted to doing so solely out of greed. However, he risks seeing the charges worsen, since the investigation into the sale of videos will continue on other websites.

Source: VICE