A U.S. Army soldier has been charged with using artificial intelligence to generate sexually-explicit images of children he knew.
Seth Herrera, 34, an Army soldier stationed in Anchorage, possessed thousands of images depicting the violent sexual abuse of children and relied on AI tools to generate realistic child sex abuse material, according to a Monday statement from the Justice Department. He was arrested last week and made his initial court appearance Tuesday.
Herrera took pictures of minors he knew and ran them through AI software to undress them or transpose them onto pornographic images depicting them performing oral sex or being penetrated by a sexual object, according to court documents obtained by The Washington Post.
According to court documents, a review of Herrera's three Samsung Galaxy phones, which were obtained during a search warrant executed by Homeland Security Investigations, revealed that he possessed "tens of thousands" of videos and images depicting children as young as infants being violently raped, dating back to March 2021.
In addition to Telegram, Herrera used other messaging apps, including Potato Chat, Enigma and Nandbox, to traffic explicit content. Herrera also created his own public Telegram group to store his explicit content, court documents said.
Herrera created "morphed" sexual abuse imagery by capturing images and videos of children he knew in intimate situations, such as taking a shower, court documents said. He would zoom in and use AI to "enhance" these photos, prosecutors added. When those images "did not satisfy his sexual desire" Herrera turned to AI to depict minors engaging in "the type of sexual conduct he wanted to see," officials said.
Robert Hammer, special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigation's Pacific Northwest division, said Herrera's role as a soldier generating child sexual abuse imagery using AI was a "profound violation of trust."
Herrera is charged with one count of transporting child sexual abuse imagery, one count of receiving it and another count of possessing the content. If convicted, Herrera faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
Herrera's arrest comes after a string of federal cases involving AI and child abuse content. In May, a Wisconsin man was charged with making child sex abuse images with AI, probably the first federal charge of creating child sexual abuse material applied to images produced entirely through AI.
In two other recent cases, federal officials said men in North Carolina and Pennsylvania had used AI to superimpose children's faces into explicit sex scenes, creating what's known as a deepfake, or to digitally remove the clothing from children in real photographs.
