KYC Nightmare: Stable Diffusion User’s Fake Image Raises Concerns For User Verification
We all know the power of generative AI and how it’s impacting our lives for better or worse. While generative AI tools like Stable Diffusion, MidJourney, and Dall-E are mostly disrupting the creative industry, a recent incident has raised serious bells across the world of user verification.
If you follow generative AI news on social media, you must’ve seen this image plastered all over your feed.
On first look, the image looks like a simple user verification image that people post on websites to get verified. These selfies are most commonly used for KYC verification to authenticate the individual’s identity.
However, the shocking part of this image is that it’s completely AI-generated. The face of the person along with the ID is all AI-generated.
The image was posted on the r/StableDiffusion Reddit community by the user u/_harsh_ who was demonstrating his learnings and experiments with generating images with text on Stable Diffusion.
While the user only intended to show his experiments in the community, this presents a horrifying nightmare in the world of security and user verification.
Related: Is Stable Diffusion Safe To Use?
Can AI Crack Open KYC?
KYC systems have been around for decades and it’s a very straightforward way of identity verification. You simply upload a picture of yourself holding your ID document such as a passport or a driver’s license.
KYC has been the standard for identity verification but it’s not foolproof as people can forge fake IDs and images to bypass it. But doing so is not easy and requires a lot of effort which keeps the problem at bay.
Unfortunately, that’s not the case anymore when generative AI tools like Stable Diffusion can be used to create fake user verification selfies in a matter of minutes.
While the original poster of the image on Reddit hasn’t tried uploading his fake image to trick any KYC system, it has opened a can of worms that will enable scammers and fraudsters to take advantage of this.
As someone with immense experience using Stable Diffusion, I can say that creating realistic images of people is very easy in Stable Diffusion. In fact, anyone can download Stable Diffusion and start creating photorealistic images of people.
However, using Stable Diffusion to generate text for IDs is not something that’s very easy or accessible to everyone.
But as GenAI tools evolve and get better, it will get easier and more accessible for people to indulge themselves in creating fake IDs or using someone else’s photos and creating fake ID images of them.
And if you’re wondering whether Stable Diffusion or other tools can create convincing fake images, take a look at this:
This image was also recently shared on the Stable Diffusion subreddit which depicts a woman taking a selfie holding a paper with some text written on it.
Images like this look very realistic and can easily fool the eye and user verification systems across a huge majority of websites and platforms.
This could have serious consequences for financial institutions, online platforms, and any entity that relies on KYC for regulatory compliance or fraud prevention.
Not only can people fool KYC systems with images of fake people, but they can also use images of real people and use their identities for harmful purposes.
Currently, the use of generative AI and deep fakes are commonly used for scams and frauds, especially in the crypto sector.
However, this incident serves as a stark reminder of the ever-evolving landscape of security and cyber threats. As generative AI technology continues to advance, we must stay ahead of the curve and develop safeguards to protect ourselves from the potential misuse of these powerful tools.
Moving forward, developers and security experts must work together to develop AI-proof verification systems that can withstand the growing sophistication of AI-generated images.
