A Wired investigation published on November 2, 2026 documented a network of more than 400 domains and applications that present themselves as everyday services, including pet portraits and fitness trainers, and that on opening load an interface for generating explicit sexual images with artificial intelligence from photographs the user uploads.
The researchers located the network while reviewing thousands of video ads with explicit deepfakes circulating on Facebook and Instagram, some with AI-generated child sexual abuse material. The applications were distributed through the Apple and Google stores, and payments ran through Apple Pay and Google Pay. The trail led to Chinese-speaking developers and to the Hong Kong entity KeLing Technology Limited, which did not respond to requests for comment. For Mexico the pattern matters because these tools arrive through the same app stores that most users in the region use. The issue already has a legislative response: the British government informed Parliament, in a written answer recorded in October 2026, that the Crime and Policing Act 2026 prohibited creating and supplying these intimate image generators, with penalties of up to three years in prison and unlimited fines, in force since June 29.
The figures size the operation. In September there were 27 of these applications active on Google Play, with more than 350,000 combined downloads; the most popular, DiffAI, exceeded 100,000. The domain registry peaked at around 30 per week during the spring. After Wired's inquiry, Apple removed 19 applications, Google had already removed most of them, and Meta blocked 209 applications from advertising on its platforms and took action against 11,600 advertising accounts, according to the same report. Paul Bouchaud, a researcher at AI Forensics, described the network as an organized commercial operation, with a single operator behind hundreds of disposable applications. In Mexico, Senate committees are reviewing a bill that seeks to classify the generation of intimate images with AI as a violation of sexual privacy, with penalties of four to eight years, according to El Universal.
The next milestone is twofold: the Home Office published on October 15, 2026 a guide for British police to pursue the creation and supply of these tools, and in Mexico the bill awaits a ruling in Senate committees. The regulatory conversation is no longer about whether the applications exist, but about who is accountable for them.
This article was written with the assistance of artificial intelligence from verified sources and reviewed by a human editor before publication.