Editor’s note: This story contains content that may be disturbing to some readers.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (WDAF) — A Kansas man was sentenced to 25 years in prison for transporting and possessing AI-generated child sexual abuse material (CSAM), commonly referred to as “child porn.”
Jeremy Weber, 47, of Topeka, was sentenced for five counts of transportation of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography.
According to court documents, Weber uploaded photographs of women and children he knew into a publicly available Artificial Intelligence (AI) platform. He then utilized AI to manipulate and merge their images into hundreds of depictions of CSAM.
Weber also uploaded previously trafficked images of CSAM to the same platform and morphed the original CSAM image with the face of the adult or minor female.
Weber also used the same AI program to produce adult pornographic images of 50-60 women without their consent.
The investigation into Weber began after an IT professional observed criminal activity on Weber’s computer and reported it to local law enforcement.
A subsequent search warrant led to a search of Weber’s residence and the discovery of an encrypted hard drive containing a folder titled “AI Swap.” In the folder was a large number of files organized into folders named after women. Each of those folders contained anywhere from a handful to hundreds of newly manufactured sexually explicit images of each individual.
“While it is still an emerging technology, I believe there can be many wonderful and beneficial aspects of artificial intelligence, but there is also a dark side,” said U.S. Attorney Ryan A. Kriegshauser. “Unfortunately, child predators are using AI for twisted and perverse activities.
“The fact that Jeremy Weber was able to create realistic looking images of child pornography using the faces of children and adults should remind us that we are all vulnerable to this type of violation. Although the images were ‘fake,’ the harm he inflicted on the victims and the consequences were very real.”
The FBI and the Topeka Police Department investigated the case.
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