Paolo Cirio

Our bodies, sometimes recreated by artificial intelligence, are becoming the targets of new forms of sexual violence. In this context, Paolo Cirio poses the question: could AI be used to monitor images generated by AI? To explore this possibility, he adopts a forensic investigative approach, turning artificial intelligence into a “digital detective.” This method enables him to identify and collect a sample of 15,000 deepfakes — images generated or manipulated to depict people in situations that never actually occurred — focusing specifically on photorealistic sexual images.

Drawing on this material, the artist creates a visual database composed of thousands of image fragments that have been anonymised, cropped and reassembled into digital collages. These fragments are also stylised to tone down their sexual content and emphasise their artificial nature, reducing them to an arrangement of pixels, colours and shapes. Accessible through the “evidence” section of the website, the database allows users to explore the various types of content identified during the investigation by searching keywords referring to body parts or objects. The images also serve a documentary purpose: they make the scale of the abuse visible and constitute, for Cirio, evidence of the violence generated and enabled by these technologies. They thus raise questions about the status of the image in the age of generative AI.

The project website, STOP-AI-NUDIFY.org, makes the investigation’s methodology, sources and materials publicly available. This open approach stands in contrast to the opacity of the algorithmic systems used by AI technologies. With Nudify AI, Paolo Cirio, in turn, seeks to “strip AI bare”: to strip it of its power and expose its mechanisms, uses and the forms of violence it can produce. The findings of the investigation are also intended to contribute to ongoing debates on regulation, platform moderation and the protection of victims.

Born in Italy in 1979, Paolo Cirio is a conceptual artist whose practice explores the legal, economic, and cultural systems of the information society. His work examines the social transformations brought about by the Internet, focusing in particular on issues of privacy, democracy, finance, intellectual property, and the circulation of information.

Through his interventions and cyberattacks, he has challenged and disrupted institutions and corporations including Facebook, Amazon, Google, VISA, Pearson, the Cayman Islands, and NATO. His work has been presented at numerous international institutions and events, including the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the Wende Museum in Los Angeles, Fondazione Prada in Venice, Tate Modern in London, and CCCB in Barcelona. His solo exhibitions have been held at institutions including Foam Museum in Amsterdam and Nome Gallery in Berlin.

Alongside his artistic practice, Paolo Cirio teaches and conducts research at various international schools and universities. He has been a visiting professor at Le Fresnoy – Studio national des arts contemporains and currently teaches at NABA in Milan and ELISAVA School of Design and Engineering in Barcelona.