nudification app
In plain wordsAn app or AI tool that takes an ordinary photo of a real person and fakes a nude or sexual image of them, almost always without their consent.
An application or AI service designed to 'undress' people in photographs, using generative image models to replace clothing with a synthetic naked body or to place an identifiable person in sexually explicit imagery. Because the images depict real people without consent, they are a form of non-consensual intimate imagery and deepfakedeepfake, n.: A fake but realistic video, photo or voice recording made with AI that puts words in a real person's mouth or shows them in a scene that never happened. abuse; victims are overwhelmingly women and girls, and the tools have been used for harassment, extortion and the creation of child sexual abuse material. Responses include takedown duties such as the US TAKE IT DOWN ActTAKE IT DOWN Act, prop. n.: A 2025 US federal law that forces websites to remove intimate images of a person posted without consent, including AI-made fakes, within 48 hours of the victim's request, and makes posting them a crime., lawsuits against operators, removal from app stores and advertising networks, new criminal offenses for creating such images, and outright bans: in May 2026 negotiators for the European Parliament and Council provisionally agreed, within the 'Digital Omnibus' amendments to the EU AI ActEU AI Act, prop. n.: The European Union's law on artificial intelligence, the first broad AI law anywhere: it bans some uses, sets strict checks for risky ones and puts duties on the makers of the biggest AI models., to prohibit AI systems used to create non-consensual sexualized deepfakes of real people, with the ban to apply from December 2026.
The school's safeguarding policy now treats any use of a nudification app as sexual harassment.
Origin
Crude undressing apps circulated from the late 2010s; diffusion models made them photorealistic and widespread in the 2020s. The issue escalated in January 2026, when xAI's Grok chatbot was used to produce sexualized edits of real women and children on X at scale, prompting temporary blocks in Indonesia and Malaysia, an Ofcom investigation in the UK and calls to add such tools to the EU AI ActEU AI Act, prop. n.: The European Union's law on artificial intelligence, the first broad AI law anywhere: it bans some uses, sets strict checks for risky ones and puts duties on the makers of the biggest AI models.'s prohibited AI practicesprohibited AI practices, n.: Uses of AI that the EU bans outright as too harmful — such as manipulating people, social scoring, and most live facial recognition by police in public places..
Usage note
Many jurisdictions treat such images of minors as child sexual abuse material regardless of how they were made.
Related
- deepfakedeepfake, n.: A fake but realistic video, photo or voice recording made with AI that puts words in a real person's mouth or shows them in a scene that never happened.
- TAKE IT DOWN ActTAKE IT DOWN Act, prop. n.: A 2025 US federal law that forces websites to remove intimate images of a person posted without consent, including AI-made fakes, within 48 hours of the victim's request, and makes posting them a crime.
- synthetic mediasynthetic media, n.: Images, video, audio or text created or substantially altered by AI rather than recorded or written directly by people, whether for art, entertainment, business or deception.
- prohibited AI practicesprohibited AI practices, n.: Uses of AI that the EU bans outright as too harmful — such as manipulating people, social scoring, and most live facial recognition by police in public places.
- content moderationcontent moderation, n.: Checking what people post, or what an AI produces, and removing, limiting or labeling whatever breaks the rules or the law — done by people, by AI, or by both together.
- safety classifiersafety classifier, n.: A separate AI model that checks messages going into or coming out of a chatbot and flags or blocks those that break safety rules, like a security guard at the door.
- digital replicadigital replica, n.: A realistic computer-made copy of a real person's voice or appearance — such as an AI clone of a singer's voice or a digital stand-in for an actor — that can say or do things the person never did.
Sources
- Euronews (2026). Can the EU stop nudification apps? 18 May 2026. euronews.com/my-europe/2026/05/18/can-the-eu-stop-nudification-apps
- Digital Policy Alert (2026). European Parliament and Council of the EU reached provisional agreement on Digital Omnibus on AI Regulation (2025/0359), including measures banning nudification apps. digitalpolicyalert.org/event/42195-european-parliament-and-council-of-the-eu-reached-provisional-agreement-on-digital-omnibus-on-ai-regulation-20250359-including-measures-banning-nudification-apps
- Anadolu Agency (2026). EU nations agree to ban AI applications used to create non-consensual sexualized deepfakes. May 2026. aa.com.tr/en/europe/eu-nations-agree-to-ban-ai-applications-used-to-create-non-consensual-sexualized-deepfakes/3929612
Mentioned in
deepfakedeepfake, n.: A fake but realistic video, photo or voice recording made with AI that puts words in a real person's mouth or shows them in a scene that never happened., non-consensual intimate imagerynon-consensual intimate imagery, n.: Sexual or nude images of a real person that are shared, or made, without their consent — including fakes created with AI that show someone undressed or in sexual scenes.