Police in 20 countries have taken down a network that distributed images of child sexual abuse entirely generated by artificial intelligence.
The operation – which spanned European countries including the United Kingdom as well as Canada, Australia, New Zealand – is “one of the first cases” involving AI-generated images of child sexual abuse material, Europe’s law enforcement agency Europol, which supported the action, said in a press release.
Danish authorities led an operation, which resulted in 25 arrests, 33 house searches and 173 devices being seized.
The crackdown came after a Danish man was arrested in November last year for producing and distributing AI-generated images of children being abused. He ran a platform users could access via a password after making an online payment.
“These artificially-generated images are so easily created that they can be produced by individuals with criminal intent, even without substantial technical knowledge,” said Europol Executive Director Catherine De Bolle.
What’s more, AI generators will boost the volume of child sexual abuse material, making it more “challenging” to identify offenders or victims, De Bolle said.
Countries involved in the operation included Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
Europol said there is currently “a lack of national legislation” on AI-generated child sexual abuse material. EU legislators are still in the process of negotiating a draft law to combat child sexual abuse material, presented by the European Commission in 2022. EU countries are struggling to come up with a common position.
The ease of AI tools to produce material quickly is becoming a massive headache for law enforcement.
Europol’s chief AI officer warned in a recent interview with POLITICO that the rise of AI chatbots, powered by so-called generative AI models, had made it much easier for criminals to commit fraud.
The agency will launch a campaign warning against using AI for illegal purposes in the coming days.
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