Federal prosecutors have charged a U.S. Army soldier with using artificial intelligence to generate explicit sexual images of children he knew, marking the government’s increased focus on penalizing the creation of child sexual abuse imagery using AI.
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, court documents said. He stored and received child sex abuse imagery through popular messaging apps such as Telegram.
Herrera’s arrest comes as AI-generated CSAM, commonly known as child pornography, floods the web with help from software that creates synthetic images. The tools are being increasingly promoted on pedophile forums as a way to create uncensored and highly photorealistic sexual depictions of children, child safety researchers told The Washington Post.
The case also comes as federal officials lay out legal arguments saying that AI-invented images should still be treated in a similar manner as child sex abuse recorded in the real world.
“The misuse of cutting-edge generative AI is accelerating the proliferation of dangerous content,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in the Justice Department statement. “… Criminals considering the use of AI to perpetuate their crimes should stop and think twice.”
The Defense Department referred questions to the Army. The Army did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Herrera’s attorney, assistant federal public defender Benjamin Muse, declined to comment.
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.
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” and previewed challenges law enforcement will face in protecting children.
Herrera is an enlisted Army specialist who served as a motor transport operator in the 11th Airborne Division at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, according to Stars and Stripes.
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.
Alice Crites contributed to this report.