May 28, 2024
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 For You
- YouTube
China was largely absent from the core conversations at the 2026 Munich Security Conference. That, says Ian Bremmer, is telling.
Most Popular
- YouTube
At the 2026 Munich Security Conference, Brad Smith announces the launch of the Trusted Tech Alliance, a coalition of global technology leaders, including Microsoft, committing to secure cross-border tech flows, ethical governance, and stronger data protections.
When the US shift from defending the postwar rules-based order to challenging it, what kind of global system emerges? CFR President Michael Froman joins Ian Bremmer on the GZERO World Podcast to discuss the global order under Trump's second term.
TODAY at 12 pm ET: Watch our Global Stage live premiere from the Munich Security Conference
Feb 13, 2026
Tune in today at 12pm ET/6pm CET for the live premiere of our Global Stage from the 2026 Munich Security Conference, where our panel of experts takes aim at the latest global security challenges. NY Times National Security Correspondent David Sanger moderates the discussion with Benedetta Berti, Secretary General, NATO Parliamentary Assembly; Ian Bremmer, President & Co-founder, Eurasia Group & GZERO Media; Dr. Wolfgang Dierker, Global Head of Government Affairs, SAP; and Brad Smith, Vice Chair & President, Microsoft.
© 2025 GZERO Media. All Rights Reserved | A Eurasia Group media company.