☰
HomeLiving Beyond BordersGZERO WorldSignalIn 60 SecondsPuppet RegimeGZERO World PodcastContact UsAbout UsCareersPrivacy PolicyTerms

Repercussions come for AI-generated child porn

May 28, 2024
 Scott Nover
Gavel
Gavel in a courtroom
REUTERS
This month, the US Department of Justice charged a 42-year-old Wisconsin man named Steven Anderegg with alleged crimes related to creating and distributing AI-generated child pornography. If convicted of all four counts brought by federal prosecutors, Anderegg faces up to 70 years in prison.

The case is novel. It’s the first time that the federal government has brought charges for child porn fully generated by AI. The government said that Anderegg created a trove of 13,000 fake images using the text-to-image generator Stable Diffusion, made by the company Stability AI, along with certain add-ons to the technology. This isn’t the first blow-up involving Stable Diffusion, though. In December, Stanford University researchers found that the dataset LAION-5B, used by Stable Diffusion, included 1,679 illegal images of child sexual abuse material.

This case could set a new precedent for an open question: Is AI-generated child pornography — for all intents and purposes under the law — child pornography?

More from GZERO Media

Russia’s dark future

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with Head of the Federal Service for Financial Monitoring Yury Chikhanchin at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, on July 8, 2025.
Sputnik/Mikhail Metzel/Pool via REUTERS

At first glance, Russia has coped well under the weight of Ukraine-related Western sanctions, but clouds are starting to circle on Moscow.

What We’re Watching: Kenya’s president cracks down further, UK and France open an atomic umbrella, Trump meddles in Brazil

Riot police officers fire tear gas canisters to disperse demonstrators during anti-government protests dubbed “Saba Saba People’s March,” in the Rift Valley town of Nakuru, Kenya, on July 7, 2025.
REUTERS/Suleiman Mbatiah

Kenya’s president orders police to shoot at protesters, European nuclear powers expand umbrella, and US President Donald Trump goes after Brazil.

The Lebanese government wants Hezbollah to disarm – will it?

Hezbollah beat on their chests as a sign of mourning during a mass rally to mark Ashoura, commemorating the martyrdom of the Prophet Muhammad's grandson Hussein.

ZUMA Press Wire

On Wednesday, the Trump administration’s envoy to Lebanon, Tom Barrack, received a stunning proposal from the Lebanese government– a plan to disarm Hezbollah, the powerful Iran-backed Shia militia group that has dominated Lebanon’s politics and fought two major wars with Israel over the past 20 years.

About UsCareers PressContact Us Privacy PolicyTerms of Use
© 2025 GZERO Media. All Rights Reserved | A Eurasia Group media company.