Tel Aviv teen detained for using AI to create explicit photos of underage girls
Police say a laptop, cellphone and iPad were seized during the arrest; boy reportedly took pictures of girls and used AI to edit them onto images of naked women
A 15-year-old boy in Tel Aviv was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of using artificial intelligence (AI) software to edit photos of underage girls and then distribute them online, according to police.
In a statement, the Israel Police said it had received a number of complaints regarding the images and located the suspect Wednesday morning.
During his arrest, a laptop, cellphone and iPad were seized, police said.
He was detained for questioning and then released under restrictive conditions, the statement said. The investigation is ongoing.
According to the Ynet news site, the boy reportedly took photos of girls in 11th grade and then used AI software to edit their faces onto images of naked women. He then distributed those pictures to WhatsApp groups over several months.
As the use of AI becomes more prolific globally, nations around the world are still grappling with how to handle the threats it poses.
In Australia, for example, a teenage boy was arrested in June after 50 students at one high school had their images altered. In May, a student at another high school in Australia was expelled for using AI to generate sexually explicit photos of his teacher.
In August, the LAION research dataset deleted some 2,000 web links after a report by the Stanford Internet Observatory found they included links to sexually explicit images of minors, contributing to the ease with which some AI tools have been able to produce photorealistic deepfakes that depict children.
In recent weeks, California lawmakers approved a host of proposals aiming to regulate the artificial intelligence industry, combat deepfakes and protect workers from exploitation by the rapidly evolving technology — citing concerns over how AI is increasingly being used to generate pornography of minors.
The alleged distribution of child sexual abuse images on the messaging app Telegram is also part of what led French authorities to bring charges against the platform’s founder and CEO, Pavel Durov.
