What Is DignifAI? The Controversial New Use Of AI, Explained

The ascent of AI has naturally lent itself to the rise of AI adult content, which people have used to get their jollies off by employing the hot new technology to craft women in various states of undress. Obviously, this has come with some serious ethical issues, but it isn't all that surprising, as new technology tends to cut its teeth in NSFW content before becoming mainstream.

This has made a recent trend where people appear to be doing the opposite and use AI to make real women more clothed peculiar, and this new #DignifAI trend has sparked intense debate on social media.

What Is #DignifAI?

#DignifAI is the brainchild of /pol/ users that claim to want to stamp out e-girls and "thots" on social media by using AI on their thirst traps to make them appear more clothed. If applicable, they will also remove their tattoos and imagine them in a more traditionally feminine setting.

The idea started on January 31st when a /pol/ user proposed the idea of utilizing AI to edit women's pictures on Twitter. They wrote:

With the power of AI
we will clothe the instahots
we will purify them of their tattoos
we will liberate them of their piercings
we will lengthen their skirts
It will be nearly impossible to build counter narratives to this. We will piggy back off the outrage around AI [p--n] and commit unrelenting psychological warfare to our own ends.
We will show them the lives they will never have. We will force them to gaze upon the image of true beauty, reclaimed from their own corrupted visage. We will bring decency back into the world, one seething roastie at a time.

This seems in line with the recent Trad push among the extremist ends of the American right to advocate for more conservative styles of living, akin to more white, male-dominated eras of the past. Part of the Trad movement has been bemoaning the proliferation of sexualized images of women and trying to advocate for more modest dress.

The same day the anon made their post, a @DignifAI Twitter account popped up and began posting under pictures of provocatively dressed women with AI-generated edits that put the women in more conservative clothing.

What Has Been The Reaction To #DignifAI?

After the movement got a major boost in visibility thanks to conservative influencer Jack Posobiec, it was met with criticism and confusion from many on social media. It's long been known that much of the internet is devoted to seeing women in less clothes, and tools such as Photoshop or Deepfake have been infamously used to make that happen. #DignifAI, which is largely assumed to be pushed by male social media users, purports to do the opposite, which has skeeved out some women on social media.

For example, one Twitter user had a widely-reposted response to the trend that argued the movement was less about men trying to cover women up but more about trying to control how they dress.

Others who have found themselves subject to DignifAI have voiced outrage, and at least one has found it funny.

THEY GRILL PILLED ME WITH AI GHFHFHHFHFHFHF pic.twitter.com/zT1bg09v43

— meg “Yooper” bitchell (@MeganBitchell) February 4, 2024

Even some conservatives find the movement ridiculous. The right-wing news publication The Daily Caller, aka Tucker Carlson's website, harshly criticized the movement in an op-ed as "pathetic."

For this reason, questions about the movement's staying power linger, as it seems to have trouble breaking out from the fringe of the American right. However, it assuredly won't be the last time the cross-section of AI and women's photographs leads to a controversy online.

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For more information, check out DignifAI on Know Your Meme.