How the OpenDream platform got into a scandal over AI-generated CSAM and deepfakes

The site’s homepage described the platform as an “AI Art generator” with a fairly innocuous, cartoon-style image. However, the public gallery page, which did not require a login to view, was full of sexually explicit images.

Within seconds of scrolling, numerous AI-generated images of young children and babies in underwear or swimsuits were spotted. The cues used to create these images – which were also publicly available – clearly demonstrated the intent to create sexualized images of children.

In addition to CSAM, OpenDream was found to have no restrictions on the creation of non-consensual deepfakes of celebrities. A scroll through the gallery found images of famous web streamers, politicians, singers, and actresses in bikinis.

Archived versions of the gallery at the Wayback Machine show that OpenDream was displaying AI CSAM and non-consensual deepfakes as far back as December 2023.

After searching for the platform’s name on popular search engines such as Google and Bing, it was found that most of the image results were also of a sexual nature.

Although OpenDream is not as widely used as some other AI image generation platforms, and this is not the first time that people have used AI to generate CSAM, the extent to which such material was available to the public without any apparent moderation was apparent.

In late July 2024, the platform began to show its first attempts at moderation. At the time of publication, pornographic images, including those using deepfake technology, appear to have been removed or blocked from viewing. The reasons for the sudden purge of content remain unclear, given that such material had previously remained unmoderated for at least six months.

Monetizing “dangerous for work” content

OpenDream generates revenue through both subscriptions and advertising. While users can create a few images per day for free, the platform also offers paid plans.

As of July 2024, the most expensive subscriptions included the ability to use NSFW prompts (content deemed inappropriate for viewing in a work environment), access to special NSFW models, and the ability to hide created images from the public gallery. NSFW is a term that encompasses sexual content, violence, or other disturbing imagery. The platform’s most common images were of a sexual nature.

As of press time, mention of publicly available NSFW models had been removed from the pricing information. However, paid plans still provided access to NSFW prompts.

Until recently, payments on the platform were processed by Stripe. However, at the end of July 2024, Stripe’s payment screen for OpenDream stopped working. Stripe’s policy prohibits processing payments for pornographic content, including CSAM and unauthorized deepfakes, and the company has previously terminated cooperation with other AI-related sites due to such content.

According to the Wayback Machine archive, OpenDream launched as a free beta product in early 2023. The pricing page first appeared in July 2023, but at that time it did not contain any mention of NSFW prompts or models. However, the features that allowed the use of NSFW prompts and NSFW models were not implemented until December 2023. Around the same time, archived versions of the gallery page began to appear with material that could be attempts to generate content with questionable ethical content.

The platform was also spotted running Google AdSense ads. One person believed to be connected to OpenDream, Nguyen Viet Hai, shared details of the platform’s revenue from advertising and subscriptions to Facebook groups dedicated to artificial intelligence in October 2023 and April 2024.

Posts made by an account under the name Nguyen Viet Hai indicated that OpenDream was planning to sell due to financial difficulties. The posts also reported that the platform was earning approximately $2,000–$3,000 per month, including approximately $800–$1,000 per month from advertising.

Posts from October 2023 indicated that the platform had 310 active paid users. According to an April 2024 post that included a screenshot of the Google AdSense dashboard for the OpenDream domain, the platform earned $2,404.79 (or VND59,282,192) from Google programmatic advertising between January 1 and March 31, 2024.

The OpenDream sale announcements noted that the company had tax breaks for the next three years and had Stripe payment processor set up. Singapore policy exempts newly incorporated companies from corporate income taxes for the first three years of operation.

There is no crime without a victim.

Globally, legislation to criminalize AI-generated CSAM has lagged far behind the rapid growth of NSFW platforms using AI technologies.

In the US and UK, AI-generated CSAM is considered illegal and equated with real CSAM. In August 2024, California filed an unprecedented lawsuit against major platforms that create unauthorized deepfakes, including CSAM. This set an important legal precedent for companies offering AI services that can be used to create such content. The EU is also considering new laws to regulate AI-assisted deepfakes and CSAM. At the same time, some countries, such as Japan, lack clear legislation that would prohibit the distribution of synthetic sexual content depicting minors unless it involves real children.

OpenDream is one of the most prominent examples of an AI platform that has generated CSAM content, but it is not the only one. Many other AI platforms have also been used to generate unauthorized deepfakes depicting adults and minors.

According to the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), Dan Sexton, the organization’s chief technology officer, stated that the creation of AI CSAM poses a significant threat to online safety. He emphasized that even if such images are synthetic, they can contribute to the normalization of such behavior, and this is a dangerous phenomenon. Sexton also noted that there is a possibility that the models used to create such images could have been trained on real-life material, which only exacerbates the problem.

According to a July 2024 report by the IWF, most of the AI-generated CSAM is so realistic that it can be equated with real-life CSAM material. Improving AI technologies only makes it more difficult to combat this problem.

Content created on the OpenDream platform was not only accessible through the site itself, but was also indexed by search engines such as Google and Bing. Search queries for the keywords “Opendream” and “Opendream AI” returned images containing synthetic sexual images of minors. Most of these included images of children in bikinis or even nude.

When asked about the appearance of OpenDream AI CSAM images in Bing search results, a Microsoft spokesperson said the company has a “longstanding commitment to improving child safety and combating child sexual abuse and exploitation online.”

The spokesperson added that steps have been taken to remove this content and strengthen protections on their platforms.

Similarly, a Google spokesperson said the search engine has “robust mechanisms to restrict access to content that depicts or sexualizes minors, including synthetic images generated using AI.”

Google, he said, is proactive in detecting, removing, and reporting such content, and is taking additional steps to filter and de-rank material that sexualizes children.

Both Bing and Google have removed the CSAM images created by OpenDream from their search results after taking action on the content.

OpenDream, Closed Doors

The Singapore business registry lists Nguyen Viet Hai as being associated with CBM Media Pte Ltd, which was also mentioned in the OpenDream sale announcement. Other individuals have also been identified as being involved in the activity.

Several social media users posing as employees of CBM or CBM Media have been using accounts under the OpenDream brand. However, it is unclear whether this is the Singapore-based CBM Media Pte Ltd, as another company with a similar name, CBM Media Company Limited, registered in the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi, has also been identified by a person named Bui Duc Quan.

Online evidence suggests that the owners of both companies with the name “CBM Media” may be familiar with each other. Bui Duc Quan, the registered owner of the Vietnamese CBM Media, has also previously mentioned owning a website called CasinoMentor.

A gambling review site known as CasinoMentor shared a series of Instagram stories saved under the name “CBM Media.” The stories, taken in May 2022, show a group of people vacationing on the Vietnamese island of Ly Son.

Both Nguyen Viet Hai and Bui Duc Quan were seen in the photos. Their faces were identified and matched with other images previously posted on their Facebook accounts.

Several other individuals have connections to CBM Media and OpenDream, according to their public profiles.

For example, one of the “content creators” listed on the OpenDream blog as a team member currently works for CasinoMentor, as well as BetMentor, according to his LinkedIn profile. BetMentor lists CasinoMentor as a partner on its website. CasinoMentor’s profile on the Gambling Portal Webmasters Association (GPWA), a community related to gambling, also states that BetMentor is owned by CasinoMentor.

Another LinkedIn profile belongs to an individual who holds the position of product manager at OpenDream and has previous experience in AI programming for “CBM.”

A CasinoMentor employee was also identified whose name matches that of the administrator of the OpenDream Facebook group. Another Facebook profile, associated with the same name but with a different alias, indicates that his current employer is OpenDream.

It is noteworthy that most CasinoMentor and BetMentor employees do not use real photos in their work profiles. In many cases, BetMentor employee profile images were created using OpenDream.

One LinkedIn profile matching the CasinoMentor employee’s data used an image of a woman who was murdered in the UK in 2020. The profile was created a year after the woman’s murder, in 2021.

Meanwhile, CasinoMentor’s address is in the Mediterranean state of Malta, according to its website and Facebook page.

Most of the office space photos listed on CasinoMentor’s Google Maps profile appear to have come from the same source as the rental listings, with the CasinoMentor logo and other information added.

However, CasinoMentor also uploaded one photo to Google Maps showing a group of people, including Bui Duc Quan. The geolocation of this photo indicates a retail space in Vietnam. The file name of this photo is “CMTeam.”

It is currently unknown whether CasinoMentor employees are based in Vietnam or Malta, as their location information is not available. None of the companies involved, including CasinoMentor and BetMentor, responded to requests for comment.

Additionally, a post by VPNChecked on the X platform was discovered, referring to OpenDream as “our product.”

Interestingly, a Reddit account with the username “vpnchecked” was an active moderator of the OpenDream subreddit back in June.

The contact information on the VPNChecked website provided another important detail. An archived version of the site from 2021 listed a phone number. A Skype search for this number identified another person.

The same Skype ID was used to create a Facebook account, the profile picture of which matched the previous Skype profile photo. Although the names on the profiles were slightly different, the connection between them was confirmed by the matching photos.

Since this person does not appear in the ownership documents of CBM Media Company Limited or CBM Media Pte Ltd, his name is not disclosed. However, his Facebook account contained a link to VPNChecked. This person was also found to be possibly associated with Bui Duc Quan and Nguyen Viet Hai.

The three are friends on Facebook and have often been tagged together in photos showing their encounters and camaraderie over the years. For example, one photo posted by Bui in 2019 shows the group clinking glasses together at a restaurant. The caption, translated from Facebook, reads: “Learning together, communicating, love hasn’t changed in 14 years!”

No responses from OpenDream

According to public social media profiles and blog posts, OpenDream is owned by CBM Media Pte Ltd, a Singapore-based company linked to Nguyen. The investigation revealed that several OpenDream employees and moderators of the platform’s social media pages also work for sites linked to CBM Media Company Limited, a Vietnamese company headed by Bui. Additionally, VPNChecked, a company with ties to an individual close to Nguyen and Bui, referred to OpenDream as “their product.”

However, it remains unclear to what extent the individuals involved were aware that users of the platform were creating content that is illegal in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada—OpenDream’s primary markets, according to Nguyen’s Facebook posts.

The investigation attempted to contact Nguyen, Bui, and an individual linked to VPNChecked via email, phone calls, and social media messages. None of the requests received a response.

OpenDream uses open-source AI models available in communities such as Hugging Face. The descriptions of some of the models note their potential for creating NSFW content.

IWF representative Dan Sexton stressed the need to consider the entire ecosystem that facilitates the creation of such content, including access to free tools and open-source models. He emphasized that laws and regulatory measures can be strengthened to prevent the creation of such services.

“These services did not emerge from nowhere. There are many stages where you can intervene and make it difficult to create them,” Sexton said. He also noted that for commercial entities trying to make money, the difficulties of creating such services can be a motive to move on to other activities.