Man Imprisoned for 18 Years for Using AI to Do Disgusting Thing to Photos of Children

"There seems to be no limit to the depths of depravity exhibited in the images."

Lock Him Up

A British man has been sentenced to nearly 20 years in prison for using artificial intelligence to transform real photos of children into disgusting sexual abuse imagery.

As The Guardian reports, the prosecution of 27-year-old Hugh Nelson is one of the first of its kind for the United Kingdom.

After investigators caught wind of the Manchester-area man's scheme, which involved using the AI-enhanced image editing software Daz 3D to create pedophilic "artwork," he was convicted on August of 16 charges related to child sexual abuse.

In some of the instances prosecutors highlighted during his trial, Nelson even took commissions from pedophiles he met in chatrooms who supplied him with photos of real children that they wanted to be transformed into abuse imagery. As the report notes, he made about 5,000 pounds, or roughly $6,486 USD, for the images.

"There seems to be no limit to the depths of depravity exhibited in the images that you were prepared to create and exhibit to others," Nelson's prosecuting judge, Martin Walsh, said during the trial.

Along with creating and selling the horrendous images, the man also encouraged others to rape children — and Walsh said it's "impossible to know" whether any real-life children had been abused due to his prodding.

New Precedent

Nelson was brought to justice, The Guardian explains, after an undercover officer posing as a pedophile contacted him in one of the chatrooms he frequented and supplied him with pictures, a fake commission request, and about $100 to execute the imagery.

"He stated: 'I’ve done beatings, smotherings, hangings, drownings, beheadings, necro, beast, the list goes on’ with a laughing emoji," prosecutor David Toal said during the trial.

After his arrest in June 2023, Nelson cried repentance.

"He said he felt vile and that his mind was corrupted," the prosecutor added. "He considered that his offending had got out of control."

Notably, Nelson isn't the first person in the UK to be prosecuted for making abusive imagery using AI.

As The Guardian reported earlier this year, a 17-year-old from the Welsh town of Denbighshire was convicted in February under the UK's old laws about the creation of "pseudo photographs" after being found with hundreds of "extreme" child sex abuse images using AI.

Strangely enough, that conviction wasn't reported until months later as an addendum to an article about an adult sex offender who'd been barred from using AI tools without police permission.

Around the world, we're beginning to see more and more of these kinds of cases. As they move through the courts, we'll start seeing more prosecutions.

More on AI abuse: AI Chatbot Urged 14-Year-Old to "Go Through With" Suicide When He Expressed Doubt