NEW YORK (AP) — Federal prosecutors have charged two males with utilizing synthetic intelligence to create nude movies and pictures of feminine celebrities below a newly enacted law meant to halt the unfold of deepfake pornography.
Cornelius Shannon, 51, and Arturo Hernandez, 20, had been each arrested Tuesday for producing sexually express AI content material that drew hundreds of thousands of views on-line, in keeping with prison complaints.
The boys — who don’t seem like linked — are among the many earliest defendants to face prices below the Take It Down Act, a regulation signed final yr by President Donald Trump that provides stricter penalties for publishing AI-created deepfakes and “revenge porn.” The invoice drew bipartisan assist, in addition to the public backing of first lady Melania Trump.
Below the brand new regulation, the lads now resist two years in jail.
Attorneys for Shannon and Hernandez didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
In an announcement, Joseph Nocella, the U.S. legal professional in Brooklyn, mentioned the lads had ”used cutting-edge digital know-how to create photos that degraded and violated” dozens of ladies. “This case makes clear that posting deepfake pornography just isn’t a victimless crime,” he added.
Shannon, a resident of New Jersey, revealed at the least 240 albums of AI-generated pornography that includes feminine politicians, musicians and singers, in keeping with the criticism.
The deepfakes revealed by Hernandez, of Texas, included each celebrities in addition to personal girls, together with current highschool graduates, prosecutors mentioned.
The arrests come as more and more refined generative AI instruments have raised alarm concerning the on-line unfold of sexually express fakes, usually depicting minors.
Final month, an Ohio man grew to become the primary particular person convicted below the Take It Down Act after pleading responsible to utilizing AI to generate baby sexual abuse materials.
In March, two teenage boys received probation for creating express AI photos of their classmates at an unique personal college in Pennsylvania.
And in a separate case filed earlier this yr, three teenagers in Tennessee sued Elon Musk’s xAI, claiming the corporate’s Grok tools morphed their real photos into explicitly sexual images.
The highschool college students are looking for class-action standing to characterize what the lawsuit says are hundreds of people that had been equally victimized as minors.
Jake Offenhartz, The Related Press




