ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) – We’re learning more from law enforcement about cyber-crimes committed with artificial intelligence, after an argyle man was arrested for allegedly using AI to create explicit photos of people he knew.
Lieutenant Michael Singleton works on internet crimes at the Division Headquarters of the New York State Police. I sat down with him to discuss that Argyle case. He said they’re seeing a rise in cases stemming from AI images.
“This year alone, I’ve received for my task force over 26,000 cyber tip reports. and of those reports, many of them have led to the arrest and prosecution of multiple individuals,” said Singleton.
On August 1 at about 6:20 P.M. troopers received a complaint that forged, explicit images of individuals had been posted to a website without their permission.
On September 8, Gary Norton of Argyle was arrested for using artificial intelligence to alter images, “That were friends of his wife,” said Singleton. “He used artificial intelligence to do that altering and when he did that, the images that he made were explicit.”
Singleton said Norton located the original images of the victims on their social media accounts. He described how state police discovered the additional victims.
“In this particular case, I know that they sent out legal process to the particular website that was involved and those responses allowed the investigators to identify multiple other victims. And they contacted them and they came forward and that’s why there was multiple charges that were lodged against him,” said Singleton.
35 year old Norton was arrested for – what state police call – the “realistic digitization of images” and faces six counts of unlawful dissemination of intimate images and six counts of obscenity in the third degree.
Singleton is also on the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. He said internet providers work with law enforcement when there are images of children.
“However, if it’s just adult images, there’s really nothing out there that monitors the digitization of those images where they can be deemed illegal,” said Singleton.
It’s only when…“When a victim comes forward and they report it, then that’s when we will get involved and look into the case,” said Singleton. “You really just have to monitor what you put out there on social media.”
If you believe you are a victim of this type of crime… “They should report it to the authorities, which can be either your local police department, the New York State Police, any of the sheriff’s departments. They can also report it to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. If it’s someone that’s underage that’s involved,” said Singleton.
Norton was issued an appearance ticket and released. He’s expected back in court on October 21.
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