British man sentenced to 18 years for using AI to make child sexual abuse imagery

abcnews.go.com:

A British man who used artificial intelligence to create images of child abuse was sent to prison for 18 years

LONDON — A British man who used artificial intelligence to create images of child abuse was sent to prison for 18 years on Monday.

The court sentenced Hugh Nelson, 27, after he pleaded guilty to a number of sexual offenses including making and distributing indecent images of children and distributing “indecent pseudo photographs of children.” He also admitted to encouraging the rape of a child.

Nelson took commissions from people in online chatrooms for custom explicit images of children being harmed both sexually and physically.

Police in Manchester, in northern England, said he used AI software from a U.S. company, Daz 3D, that has an “AI function” to generate images that he both sold to online buyers and gave away for free. The police force said it was a landmark case for its online child abuse investigation team.

The company said the licensing agreement for its Daz Studio 3D rendering software prohibits its use for creating images that «violate child pornography or child sexual exploitation laws, or are otherwise harmful to minors.»

“We condemn the misuse of any software, including ours, for such purposes, and we are committed to continuously improving our ability to prevent it,” Daz 3D said in a statement, adding that its policy is to assist law enforcement “as needed.”

Bolton Crown Court, near Manchester, heard that Nelson, who has a master's degree in graphics, also used images of real children for some of his computer-generated artwork.

Judge Martin Walsh said it was impossible to determine whether a child was sexually abused as a result of his images but Nelson intended to encourage others to