Subtlefakes: Slightly Altered Nonconsensual AI Images Are Taking Over X
404 Media documents 'subtlefakes' — near-realistic AI-edited nonconsensual celebrity images on X spread by engagement-farming accounts, including images of actor Xochitl Gomez.
The article describes a rising trend of 'subtlefakes': AI-generated or lightly edited images of celebrities made more revealing or provocative without nudity, posted by verified engagement-farming accounts that earn revenue from X's impressions-based payouts. Actor Xochitl Gomez shared side-by-side comparisons showing real parking-lot and red-carpet photos altered into suggestive poses. The author argues these images are hard to detect and moderate because they avoid nudity, bypassing guardrails in mainstream generators, and notes some were made with X's own Grok.
- Subtlefakes are photorealistic but subtly altered images lacking typical deepfake context clues.
- Posted by verified engagement-farming accounts monetized through X's impressions payouts.
- Avoiding nudity helps bypass mainstream AI image generator guardrails.
- Xochitl Gomez publicly shared side-by-sides of her altered images.
- Vendors
- X
- Products
- Grok
- Victims
- Xochitl Gomez
- Organizations
- Data & Society
- AI models
- Grok
From the original article
7 min read at 404media.co
I can clearly remember the first time I saw a 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. It was a short .
By Emanuel Maiberg · 404media.co
A short excerpt; the article and its images belong to the publisher. Summary, key facts and assessment above are AI-written from the article and can be wrong.