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submitted 10 months ago by db0@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/news@lemmy.world

A Florida man is facing 20 counts of obscenity for allegedly creating and distributing AI-generated child pornography, highlighting the danger and ubiquity of generative AI being used for nefarious reasons.

Phillip Michael McCorkle was arrested last week while he was working at a movie theater in Vero Beach, Florida, according to TV station CBS 12 News. A crew from the TV station captured the arrest, which made for dramatic video footage due to law enforcement leading away the uniform-wearing McCorkle from the theater in handcuffs.

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[-] DmMacniel@feddit.org 93 points 10 months ago

I don't see how children were abused in this case? It's just AI imagery.

It's the same as saying that people get killed when you play first person shooter games.

Or that you commit crimes when you play GTA.

[-] timestatic@feddit.org 31 points 10 months ago

Then also every artist creating loli porn would have to be jailed for child pornography.

[-] KillerTofu@lemmy.world 16 points 10 months ago

How was the model trained? Probably using existing CSAM images. Those children are victims. Making derivative images of “imaginary” children doesn’t negate its exploitation of children all the way down.

So no, you are making false equivalence with your video game metaphors.

[-] fernlike3923@sh.itjust.works 55 points 10 months ago

A generative AI model doesn't require the exact thing it creates in its datasets. It most likely just combined regular nudity with a picture of a child.

[-] DmMacniel@feddit.org 28 points 10 months ago

Can you or anyone verify that the model was trained on CSAM?

Besides a LLM doesn't need to have explicit content to derive from to create a naked child.

[-] KillerTofu@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago

You’re defending the generation of CSAM pretty hard here in some vaguely “but no child we know of” being involved as a defense.

[-] DmMacniel@feddit.org 14 points 10 months ago

I just hope that the Models aren't trained on CSAM. Making generating stuff they can fap on ""ethical reasonable"" as no children would be involved. And I hope that those who have those tendancies can be helped one way or another that doesn't involve chemical castration or incarceration.

[-] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 12 points 10 months ago

While i wouldn't put it past Meta&Co. to explicitly seek out CSAM to train their models on, I don't think that is how this stuff works.

[-] grue@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

But the AI companies insist the outputs of these models aren't derivative works in any other circumstances!

[-] Samvega 15 points 10 months ago

It's just AI imagery.

Fantasising about sexual contact with children indicates that this person might groom children for real, because they have a sexual interest in doing so. As someone who was sexually assaulted as a child, it's really not something that needs to happen.

[-] HubertManne@moist.catsweat.com 20 points 10 months ago

Seems like then fantasizing about shooting people or carjacking or such indcates that person might do that activity for real to. There are a lot of car jackings nowadays and you know gta is real popular. mmmm. /s but seriously im not sure your first statement has merit. Especially when you look at where to draw the line. anime. manga. oil paintings. books. thoughts in ones head.

[-] CeruleanRuin@lemmings.world 3 points 10 months ago

If you're asking whether anime, manga, oil paintings, and books glorifying the sexualization of children should also be banned, well, yes.

This is not comparable to glorifying violence, because real children are victimized in order to create some of these images, and the fact that it's impossible to tell makes it even more imperative that all such imagery is banned, because the existence of fakes makes it even harder to identify real victims.

It's like you know there's an armed bomb on a street, but somebody else filled the street with fake bombs, because they get off on it or whatever. Maybe you'd say making fake bombs shouldn't be illegal because they can't harm anyone. But now suddenly they have made the job of law enforcement exponentially more difficult.

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[-] TallonMetroid@lemmy.world 11 points 10 months ago

Well, the image generator had to be trained on something first in order to spit out child porn. While it may be that the training set was solely drawn/rendered images, we don't know that, and even if the output were in that style, it might very well be photorealistic images generated from real child porn and run through a filter.

[-] MagicShel@programming.dev 48 points 10 months ago

An AI that is trained on children and nude adults can infer what a nude child looks like without ever being trained specifically with those images.

[-] yesman@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago
[-] LustyArgonianMana@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Yes exactly. That people are then excusing this with "well it was trained on all.public images," are just admitting you're right and that there is a level of harm here since real materials are used. Even if they weren't being used or if it was just a cartoon, the morality is still shaky because of the role porn plays in advertising. We already have laws about advertising because it's so effective, including around cigarettes and prescriptions. Most porn, ESPECIALLY FREE PORN, is an ad to get you to buy other services. CP is not excluded from this rule - no one gets free lunch, so to speak. These materials are made and hosted for a reason.

The role that CP plays in most countries is difficult. It is used for blackmail. It is also used to generate money for countries (intelligence groups around the world host illegal porn ostensibly "to catch a predator," but then why is it morally okay for them to distribute these images but no one else?). And it's used as advertising for actual human trafficking organizations. And similar organizations exist for snuff and gore btw. And ofc animals. And any combination of those 3. Or did you all forget about those monkey torture videos, or the orangutan who was being sex trafficked? Or Daisy's Destruction and Peter Scully?

So it's important to not allow these advertisers to combine their most famous monkey torture video with enough AI that they can say it's AI generated, but it's really just an ad for their monkey torture productions. And even if NONE of the footage was from illegal or similar events and was 100% thought of by AI - it can still be used as an ad for these groups if they host it. Cartoons can be ads ofc.

[-] ContrarianTrail@lemm.ee 43 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

How many corn dogs do you think were in the training data?

[-] Saledovil@sh.itjust.works 5 points 10 months ago

Wild corn dogs are an outright plague where I live. When I was younger, me and my buddies would lay snares to catch to corn dogs. When we caught one, we'd roast it over a fire to make popcorn. Corn dog cutlets served with popcorn from the same corn dog is popular meal, especially among the less fortunate. Even though some of the affluent consider it the equivalent to eating rat meat. When me pa got me first rifle when I turned 14, I spent a few days just shooting corn dogs.

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[-] lunarul@lemmy.world 16 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

we don't know that

might

Unless you're operating under "guilty until proven innocent", those are not reasons to accuse someone.

[-] leraje 5 points 10 months ago

The difference is intent. When you're playing a FPS, the intent is to play a game. When you play GTA the intent is to play a game.

The intent with AI generated CSAM is to watch kids being abused.

[-] datavoid@lemmy.ml 27 points 10 months ago

Whose to say there aren't people playing games to watch people die?

[-] leraje 4 points 10 months ago

There may well be the odd weirdo playing Call of Duty to watch people die.

But everyone who watches CSAM is watching it to watch kids being abused.

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[-] CeruleanRuin@lemmings.world 5 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Not a great comparison, because unlike withh violent games or movies, you can't say that there is no danger to anyone in allowing these images to be created or distributed. If they are indistinguishable from the real thing, it then becomes impossible to identify actual human victims.

There's also a strong argument that the availability of imagery like this only encourages behavioral escalation in people who suffer from the affliction of being a sick fucking pervert pedophile. It's not methadone for them, as some would argue. It's just fueling their addiction, not replacing it.

this post was submitted on 26 Aug 2024
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