Illinois Man Charged With Using AI Apps to Generate CSAM From Real Photos of Children
Published · updated · curated by AI Is Going Just Great
Source: cbsnews.com ↗
"This technology just keeps increasing. We're seeing an absolute ton of it. I think it's horrifying that any app would be able to make it seem as if somebody is undressed or doing acts like this, but it's easily accessible to adults and even to juveniles."
Jeremy Batterman, of Kane County, Illinois, was charged on August 12 with 40 counts of production of child sexual abuse material and four counts of obscene depiction of a purported child after allegedly photographing children as young as 11 at a church and a middle school, then using publicly available AI apps to convert those images into explicit material. Prosecutors say he also generated CSAM from scratch using the same tools.
A CyberTip to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children triggered a three-month investigation. Batterman was taken into custody on August 13 and ordered held pending trial. Prosecutors do not believe he distributed the material. The Kane County State's Attorney noted that several of the apps Batterman used are freely accessible to the public, including to minors, and that her office has seen a steep rise in AI-generated CSAM cases over the past two to three years.