US man used AI to generate 13,000 child sexual abuse pictures, FBI alleges | Artificial intelligence (AI)

[Pelican Press 0]

US man used AI to generate 13,000 child ******* ****** pictures, FBI alleges | Artificial intelligence (AI)

The FBI has charged a US man with creating more than 10,000 ********* explicit and abusive images of children, which he allegedly generated using a popular artificial intelligence tool. Authorities also accused the man, 42-year-old Steven Anderegg, of sending pornographic AI-made images to a 15-year-old boy over

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Anderegg crafted about 13,000 “hyper-realistic images of ***** and semi-clothed prepubescent children”,

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in an indictment released on Monday, often images depicting children touching their genitals or being ********* abused by ****** men. Evidence from the Wisconsin man’s laptop allegedly showed he used the popular Stable Diffusion AI model, which turns text descriptions into images.

Anderegg’s charges came after the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) received two reports last year that flagged his

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account, which prompted law enforcement officials to monitor his activity on the social network, obtain information from

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and eventually obtain a search warrant. Authorities seized his laptop and found thousands of generative AI images, according to the indictment against him, as well as a history of using “extremely specific and explicit prompts” to create abusive material.

Anderegg faces four counts of creating, distributing and possessing child ******* ****** material and sending explicit material to a child under 16. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of about 70 years in prison, with 404 Media

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that the case is one of the first times the FBI has charged someone with generating AI child ******* ****** material. Last month, a man in Florida was arrested for allegedly taking a picture of his neighbor’s child and using AI to create ********* explicit imagery with the photo.

Child safety advocates and artificial intelligence researchers have long warned that the malicious use of generative AI could lead to a surge in child ******* ****** material. Reports of online child ****** to the NCMEC rose about 12% in 2023 from the previous year, in part due to a sharp increase in AI-made material,

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the organization’s tip line for flagging potential child ******* ****** material (CSAM).

“The NCMEC is deeply concerned about this quickly growing trend, as bad actors can use artificial intelligence to create deepfaked ********* explicit images or videos based on any photograph of a real child or generate CSAM depicting computer-generated children engaged in graphic ******* acts,” the NCMEC’s report read.

The ***** in generative AI has led to the widespread creation of nonconsensual deepfake ************, which has targeted anyone from A-list celebrities to average, private citizens. AI-generated images and deepfakes of minors have also circulated among schools, in one case

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of two middle school boys in Florida who created ***** images of their classmates. Several states have passed laws against the non-consensual generation of explicit images, while the Department of Justice has said that generating ******* AI images of children is ********.

“The justice department will aggressively pursue those who produce and distribute child ******* ****** material – or CSAM – no matter how that material was created,” the deputy attorney general, Lisa Monaco, said in a statement after the arrest. “Put simply, CSAM generated by AI is still CSAM, and we will hold accountable those who exploit AI to create obscene, abusive and increasingly photorealistic images of children.”

Stable Diffusion, which is an open-source artificial intelligence model, has previously been used to generate ********* abusive images and modified by users to produce explicit material. A

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from the Stanford Internet Observatory also found that there was child ******* ****** material in its training data. Stability AI, which created Stable Diffusion, has said it forbids the use of its model for creating ******** content.

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Stability AI, the *** company behind the wide release of Stable Diffusion, said that it believed the AI model used in this case was an earlier version of the model which was originally created by the startup RunwayML. Stability AI claimed that since it took over the development of Stable Diffusion models in 2022, it has implemented more safeguards in the tool. The Guardian has contacted RunwayML for comment.

“Stability AI is committed to preventing the misuse of AI and prohibit the use of our image models and services for unlawful activity, including attempts to edit or create CSAM,” the company said in a statement.

• In the US, call or text the

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  ****** hotline on 800-422-4453 or visit
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  for more resources and to report child ****** or DM for help. For ****** survivors of child ******, help is available at
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  . In the ***, the
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  offers support to children on 0800 1111, and adults concerned about a child on 0808 800 5000. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (
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  ) offers support for ****** survivors on 0808 801 0331. In Australia, children, young adults, parents and teachers can contact the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800, or
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  on 1800 272 831, and ****** survivors can contact
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  on 1300 657 380. Other sources of help can be found at
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#man #generate #child #******* #****** #pictures #FBI #alleges #Artificial #intelligence

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