Quebec Man Sentenced to Prison for Creating AI-Generated Child Pornography

A Quebec man, Steven Larouche, has been sentenced to over eight years in prison for creating synthetic videos of child pornography using deepfake technology. He pleaded guilty to creating at least seven such videos and possessing hundreds of thousands of computer files of child pornography. The Provincial court judge, Benoit Gagnon, called the use of deepfake technology in criminal hands "chilling" and wrote that this could turn children into potential victims of child pornography. The creation of new images of sexual abuse fuels the market for child pornography, which craves novelty, and puts children at risk. Larouche's actions made it more difficult for police to stop the spread of the illicit material. Larouche admitted to possessing more than 545,000 computer files containing images or videos of child sexual abuse.