AI nudes of Margot Robbie are being sold on eBay

Popular selling platform eBay was forced to suspend a host of sellers and remove hundreds of AI-generated nude images of at least 40 celebrities including Margot Robbie, Taylor Swift, Selena Gomez, Katy Perry, Ariana Grande, Jennifer Aniston and many more.

Forbes flagged the listings to the platform, with one seller said to have over 400 items including edited explicit images for under $7.

eBay allows users to sell items that feature nudity, as long as they're listed under the arts and collectables categories. However, their adult items policy states "AI generated or photoshopped nude or sexually suggestive images of public figures" are banned.

Spokesperson Trina Somera told the publication that eBay uses a mix of "AI technology, professionally trained eBay investigators and sweeps of the marketplace" to detect prohibited items.

"Listings with AI-generated or photoshopped celebrity adult images that violate eBay policies will be blocked or removed. Users found attempting to list prohibited items may face consequences up to, and including, a permanent suspension," Somera added.

Getty Images

This isn't the first time celebrities have been targeted with problematic AI-generated images, with podcaster Bobbi Althoff recently finding herself featured in a vulgar deepfake video.

Furthermore, a study by Glamour, Rape Crisis England & Wales and Refuge, found that 91 per cent of respondents think deepfaking poses a threat to the safety of women, compared to 40 per cent of respondents who fear image-based sexual abuse, or so-called ‘revenge porn’.

Emma Pickering, Head of Technology-Facilitated Abuse and Economic Empowerment at Refuge, said: "Technology facilitated abuse can often be more insidious and harder to spot than other types of domestic abuse but it is equally rooted in coercive control. The rate at which this type of crime, including ‘deep-faking’ and other forms of intimate image abuse, is now concerning women on a mass scale is truly alarming.

"There is very little education out there about digital consent and this type of domestic abuse, so we must raise the alarm and act now as these forms of abuse are impacting women on an unprecedented scale. As new technologies evolve and become cheaper and more accessible, perpetrators equip themselves with new technological weapons to harm women."

Indy100 reached out to eBay for comment

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