A Florida man is facing charges after authorities said he took a photo of a young girl in his neighborhood then used artificial intelligence to create child pornography with it.
Officials with the Martin County Sheriff's Office officials said the case if the first they've handled of its type.
The suspect, 51-year-old Daniel Warren, is facing 17 child pornography charges.
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Authorities said Warren used a picture of an underage girl he knew then figured out how to use A.I. to alter it.
"It's pretty scary when you look at this stuff, if you just looked at it briefly, you would think it’s a real photograph. The technology has gotten to the level, it’s very scary," Det. Brian Broughton said. "What he does is he takes the face of a child and then he sexualizes that, removes the clothing and poses the child and engages them in certain sexual activity. And that’s the images that he is making with this A.I."
Thanks to a tip authorities received by an internet crimes against children group, Warren was arrested in his Jensen Beach home. Authorities said he was very well known in the community where he lived.
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"He was very friendly to many of the neighborhood children, as well as the other families, so it was an activity that happened in the shadows," Broughton said.
According to authorities, there were more than 39 electronic devices that were thoroughly analyzed by detectives, and the images found and shared were extremely disturbing.
"These kids did not even know they were victims, so we are fighting a new style of crime," Martin County Sheriff's Capt. Ruben Romero said.
Warren appeared in court, where his bond was set at $1.5 million.
