GoKawiilAn Ohio man became the first person convicted under the Take It Down Act after pleading guilty to creating and sharing both real and AI-generated explicit images of at least 10 victims without their consent.
According to a Justice Department press release, 37-year-old James Strahler II used AI tools to create fake sexualized images to harass at least six women he knew. In some images, he depicted one victim engaged in sex with her father and shared that image with her mother and co-workers. He also used AI to create explicit and incestuous images that placed the faces of minor boys on adult bodies, including young boys related to his victims.
Cops found that Strahler “installed more than 24 AI platforms and more than 100 AI web-based models on his phone,” which he used to create hundreds, if not thousands, of non-consensual intimate images (NCII) depicting both women and children.
Court documents showed that he created the images to try to coerce victims and their mothers into sending genuine nude images, while also threatening rape and “leaving voicemails of him masturbating.” According to the Columbus Dispatch, Strahler made some of the unlawful images of his exes, their family, and their friends “to scare women into reconciling with him.”
Additionally, he posted more than 700 images depicting real and “animated” persons “to a website dedicated to child sexual abuse.” Cops also found that he posted NCII of at least one victim and her mother on a website called “Motherless,” which encourages users to post “anything legal.” And Strahler also posed as a victim on a pornographic site, where he “provided AI-generated images and video to at least one person,” The Columbus Dispatch reported.
On Tuesday, Strahler pled guilty to “cyberstalking, producing obscene visual representations of child sexual abuse, and publication of digital forgeries.” He has yet to be sentenced for the crimes. Under the Take It Down Act, he risks a prison sentence of up to two years for publishing NCII depicting adults and up to three years for images of minors.