{"id":48094,"date":"2026-05-22T11:25:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T11:25:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/48094\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T11:25:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T11:25:13","slug":"two-men-charged-with-creating-ai-generated-porn-under-new-law-targeting-deepfakes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/48094\/","title":{"rendered":"Two men charged with creating AI-generated porn under new law targeting \u2018deepfakes\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Federal prosecutors have charged two men with using artificial intelligence to create nude videos and photos of female celebrities under a newly enacted law<\/a> meant to halt the spread of deepfake pornography.<\/p>\n

Cornelius Shannon, 51, and Arturo Hernandez, 20, were both arrested Tuesday for generating sexually explicit AI content that drew millions of views online, according to criminal complaints.<\/p>\n

The men \u2014 who do not appear to be connected \u2014 are among the earliest defendants to face charges under the Take It Down Act, a law signed last year by President Donald Trump that adds stricter penalties for publishing AI-created deepfakes and \u201crevenge porn.\u201d The bill drew bipartisan support, as well as the public backing of first lady Melania Trump.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"PresidentPresident Donald Trump holds up a bill for the “Take it Down Act” that he and first lady Melania Trump signed in the Rose Garden of the White House, Monday, May 19, 2025, in Washington.(AP Photo\/Evan Vucci)<\/p>\n

Under the new law, the men now face up to two years in prison.<\/p>\n

Attorneys for Shannon and Hernandez did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Joseph Nocella, the U.S. attorney in Brooklyn, said the men had \u201dused cutting-edge digital technology to create images that degraded and violated\u201d dozens of women. \u201cThis case makes clear that posting deepfake pornography is not a victimless crime,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Shannon, a resident of New Jersey, published at least 240 albums of AI-generated pornography featuring female politicians, musicians and singers, according to the complaint.<\/p>\n

The deepfakes published by Hernandez, of Texas, included both celebrities as well as private women, including recent high school graduates, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n

The arrests come as increasingly sophisticated generative AI tools have raised alarm<\/a> about the online spread of sexually explicit fakes, often depicting minors.<\/p>\n

Last month, an Ohio man became the first person convicted under the Take It Down Act after pleading guilty to using AI to generate child sexual abuse material.<\/p>\n

In March, two teenage boys received probation<\/a> for creating explicit AI images of their classmates at an exclusive private school in Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

And in a separate case filed earlier this year, three teenagers in Tennessee sued Elon Musk\u2019s xAI,<\/a> claiming the company\u2019s Grok tools morphed their real photos into explicitly sexual images<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The high school students are seeking class-action status to represent what the lawsuit says are thousands of people who were similarly victimized as minors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Federal prosecutors have charged two men with using artificial intelligence to create nude videos…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48095,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[24,601,25,28712,28710,2657,28713,8831,206,3711,28714,984,468,28711,604],"class_list":["post-48094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ai","tag-ai","tag-artificial","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-arturu","tag-cornelius","tag-deepfakes","tag-hernandez","tag-images","tag-intelligence","tag-jersey","tag-melania","tag-new","tag-ohio","tag-shannon","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48094\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}