AI or Artificial Intelligence is a broad set of technologies that allow computers to do things that traditionally required human smarts and human effort.
AI is everywhere from smart assistants like Siri or Alexa, to recommendations you see online about movies or products you may like, as well as GPS navigation to get you from point A to point B in the most efficient way.
AI tools such as ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Microsoft’s Bing Chat are examples of generative AI where via chat prompts from the user they can generate written documents, poems, computer code, scripts, musical pieces, emails, and letters as well as answering questions in an informative way.
These same AI tools in addition to image specific tools such as Google’s Imagen, OpenAI’s DALL-E 2, and Midjourney can generate images, photographs and even videos based on a user’s text prompt. In fact, the image for this article was generated by Google Gemini.
Herein lies the problem: These same AI image, photographic, and video generative tools can land you and your kids in jail. How can this be possible? Read on:
In what is thought to be the first criminal case of its kind, two teenage boys from Miami, Florida were arrested for creating and sharing nude images of their classmates (both male and female) that were generated using AI. The teens were arrested under Florida Statue §836.13 - Promotion of an altered sexual depiction - which is a third-degree felony offense punishable by up to five (5) years in state prison. Specifically, the law passed in 2022 states that, “A person who willfully and maliciously promotes any altered sexual depiction of an identifiable person, without the consent of the identifiable person, and who knows or reasonably should have known that such visual depiction was an altered sexual depiction, commits a felony of the third degree.”
Wired magazine reported that the boys created the images and shared them after which school officials were alerted. The boys were then suspended from school and later charged with the felony offense. It should be noted that in such cases the defendant could be charged with a separate felony count for each of the shared images, thus if there were for example 5 images created and shared without consent, the individual could be charged with 5 separate third-degree felony offenses each punishable by up to five (5) years in state prison.
Middle school and high school aged children are already familiar with AI tools. Some schools and teachers even encourage responsible use of AI. Thus, it is not hard to imagine that kids may experiment with AI and could create images that could end up being criminal and subject them to a Juvenile criminal arrest and a Juvenile criminal record.
Adults are also at risk of criminal charges stemming from illegal use of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools. From a simple practical joke to malicious AI generated revenge porn, if there is a lack of consent from the person in the images and those images are shared a felony offense or offenses may be charged.
The types of images described above are also known as Deepfake nudes - photos or videos created with AI that are generated of a person or oftentimes a celebrity naked or having sex. These images are sometimes generated online with AI tools and then shared on social media platforms including Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Reddit, TikTok, and online pornography websites. Celebrities such as Taylor Swift and Sydney Sweeney have become victims of deepfake nude photos and videos. Celebrities like Taylor Swift have also begun to sue platforms hosting the images exposing creators of these images not only to criminal charges but also to civil penalties.
AI has also been used to generate explicit images and videos of child victims. Known as Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) whether it is authentic or created with AI it is still a crime under Florida law.
It should be noted that Florida Statue §836.13 - Promotion of an altered sexual depiction stands separately and apart from Florida Statute §784.049 - Sexual cyberharassment - otherwise known as the “Revenge Porn Statute.” Florida’s Revenge Porn Statute makes it a criminal offense to “publish to an Internet website or disseminate through electronic means to another person a sexually explicit image of a person that contains or conveys the personal identification information of the depicted person without the depicted person’s consent, contrary to the depicted person’s reasonable expectation that the image would remain private, for no legitimate purpose, with the intent of causing substantial emotional distress to the depicted person.” Interestingly violation of the Revenge Porn Statute is a misdemeanor offense while a violation of the AI Porn Statute is a felony offense - thus under current Florida law it is a higher level offense to make and publish a generated image than it is to publish a real image.
If you or your child (Juvenile) have been arrested for a criminal offense of any type, call the Morris Law Firm at 727-388-4736, Option 1 for New Clients for a strategic review of your case and representation. The Morris Law Firm handles misdemeanor and felony criminal cases throughout the Tampa Bay area and is dedicated to criminal defense.