A Perth woman has revealed the horrifying moment a group of strange men took her photo at a pub and used AI to turn it into sexualised content.
Perth saleswoman Jade Helen had been enjoying a couple glasses of wine with a close friend at a Scarborough venue on Friday night, when a group of eight to 10 men sitting nearby began engaging in friendly banter with the pair.
The friendly chat quickly took a dark turn, however, when one of the men decided to unknowingly take a photo of Jade and upload it into an AI program.
“I had no idea he had taken a photo of me, then he put it into AI and altered the picture into sexualised content,” the 29-year-old revealed to PerthNow — saying the picture showed her making out with several of the men in the group.
“One of the men had passed the photo around, actually showing it to me and my friend, and they were all just laughing about it.”
They had also unknowingly taken an image of Jade’s friend and used AI to create sexual content featuring her.
Jade said she had initially brushed off the act as drunken immaturity and left the venue with her friend, but a later conversation reflecting on the incident left her feeling furious about the men’s actions.
“(My friend) said to me, ‘They’ve completely degraded you and withdrew your consent from this whole interaction, and just used you as entertainment’ — that’s when I realised how messed up it was,” she said.
“Given AI is so common nowadays, it means someone can just take an ordinary photo of you and within seconds, create something sexualised, degrading, or completely fabricated that looks really realistic.
“You don’t even have to pose, you don’t have to send any intimate images — you don’t even have to know the person who’s creating it, and that’s frightening.”
After processing what happened, the sales worker and her friend contacted both the venue and law enforcement to report the patron.
“The venue took it really seriously straight away, they said that’s not how they treat people and it’s not the culture they want in their bar,” she told PerthNow, revealing the men had been banned from the venue over the stunt.
PerthNow has reached out to the Scarborough venue to confirm the length of the ban, but has not heard back by the time of publication.
While the venue had a prompt response to the incident, the 29-year-old was left frustrated at how law enforcement addressed it.
In communication between the pair and police seen by PerthNow, the women were told AI is a “whole new world” when it comes to explicit images.
“Unfortunately, the law and law enforcement can be slow and behind the eight ball, especially when technology currently seems to change daily,” a detective wrote.
“At this point, there is no law that determines artificial intelligent created photos or media.”
Australia introduced Commonwealth criminal offences dealing specifically with sexually explicit material that has been created or altered using technology, including artificial intelligence — however only one person has been prosecuted under the new AI laws since their enactment in 2024.
Under section 221BC of WA legislation, it is an offence to take, capture, or create an intimate image of another person without their consent, which explicitly covers the creation of deepfake pornographic material.
Most state legislation, however, focuses on the distribution of the AI material — which did not happen in Jade’s case, given she had been shown the image in person.
WA Police confirmed there was indeed state legislation against non-consensual AI material.
“Western Australian legislation criminalises the non-consensual distribution, or threatened distribution of intimate images, including images that have been created or altered using AI,” a spokesperson said.
The WA Police Force has been in consultation with the Office of the Commissioner for Victims of Crime as part of a statutory review of the legislation, which is considering opportunities to further strengthen the legislative framework, including in relation to the possession of AI-generated or manipulated intimate content without consent.”
Jade said it was this information from police that spurred her to share the incident on social media.
A TikTok about the situation quickly gained attention across WA, with the video amassing 72,000 views in two days.
The 29-year-old received countless comments urging her to contact the eSafety Commissioner about the images — advice she says she wishes she had received from police before taking the matter online.
“The police weren’t able to help, which with no laws that might’ve been all they could do, but they also didn’t guide us in any way to report it to eSafety or anything,” she told PerthNow.
“They acknowledged it was wrong but there was just no guidance for me either without the power of social media.”
PerthNow has reached out to WA Police about the incident and policing surrounding AI images.
As online fury from women across Perth continued to mount, Jade received a DM from the man who allegedly created the sexualised images of her.
“I made the AI picture as a joke to show (my friend) because we have a running joke with him and his girlfriend,” the man explained to Jade in private messages seen by PerthNow.
“I didn’t want to make you feel that way but it clearly wasn’t a joke to you . . . that was wrong of me and you didn’t deserve any of that.”
Jade said the explanation left her even more worried about how the Perth community is using AI.
“Saying it’s a running joke tells me it’s not the first time he’s done this to women and it might not even be the last time sadly,” she said.
“It’s a scary thing with AI where if someone is easily doing this as a ‘running joke’, what else are they doing?
“The fact they also showed my friend and I the images they made of us shows they must’ve been so unaware of how wrong it was, like they expected us to just laugh.”
Jade told PerthNow she hopes her horrifying experience highlights how easily people can use AI to create misogynistic content.
“I’ve seen the entire movement on women’s violence and consent over the years, and it’s shocking how misogyny has kind of evolved with technology,” she said.
“So you can’t do it out loud anymore because people will hold you accountable, but AI will let you do that? Like how is this a thing?
“AI might be new, but respect isn’t.”
She has also encouraged locals across Perth to be willing to stand up for strangers if they see their friends are doing the wrong thing.
“It’s really important to stand up to this stuff and say it’s wrong,” she said.
“Not one of those men did — in a group of eight to ten, not one of them said to their friends that this was wrong.
“We need to stand up for women and each other.”
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