Federal prosecutors have charged a Wisconsin man for allegedly using an artificial intelligence image generator to create thousands of explicit images of children.

In a statement Monday, the Justice Department said that Steven Anderegg, 42, of Holmen, Wisconsin, was charged with using the AI image generator Stable Diffusion to create over 13,000 fake images of minors. Many of these images depicted fully or partially nude children engaging in sexual activities.

“The Justice Department will aggressively pursue those who produce and distribute child sexual abuse material — or CSAM — no matter how that material was created,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in a statement. “Put simply, CSAM generated by AI is still CSAM, and we will hold accountable those who exploit AI to create obscene, abusive, and increasingly photorealistic images of children.”

It is the first case the Justice Department is aware of involving someone suspected of using AI to fully generate CSAM. The AI-generated images did not feature real children but were created by typing descriptive text into the image generator. 

The situation underscores the Justice Department’s position that a 2003 law banning photorealistic fake and obscene images applies to AI-created content.

In two other recent cases, investigators noted that men in North Carolina and Pennsylvania used AI to superimpose children’s faces into explicit scenes, known as deepfakes, or to digitally remove clothing from real photographs of children.

The arrest comes amid growing concerns about AI-generated CSAM flooding the internet. Synthetic-image-making software is increasingly being promoted on pedophile forums as a means to create uncensored and highly photorealistic sexual depictions of children, according to child safety researchers.

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