CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The FBI has issued a warning to anyone who posts pictures on social media – and especially to parents.
AI is changing the game when it comes to pornographic images and what makes this so disturbing is it can happen to anyone.
WCNC Charlotte’s Michelle Boudin spoke exclusively with the agents who cracked a recent case. The details will shock you and leave you second-guessing what you post online.
From innocent to illegal
A Charlotte child psychiatrist took photos from social media accounts of women he knew and then used Artificial intelligence (AI) to turn those photos into nudes. Authorities say students are using similar methods to bully classmates.
Charlotte-based FBI Special Agent Brown knew something was off about the photos she was looking at - evidence in a recent case.
"I was not sure what we were looking at, I just knew something had happened to this image," Brown said.
Brown and her partner, Special Agent Atwood both specialize in crimes against children and human trafficking.
Atwood and Brown recently worked on a case that was the first of its kind in the area, maybe even nationwide.
"We started to find videos that Mr. Tatum was producing," Atwood said.
Thanks to their investigation, Charlotte child psychiatrist David Tatum was convicted of producing child porn – and you won’t believe how he did it.
"We received a tip that someone in the community had something on their computer and we weren’t sure what it was," Brown said.
An innocent photo, one we’ve all posed for, was turned into something shocking and disturbing.
"It was a first day of school photo," Agent Brown explained.
Five young girls posed for the picture decades ago. One of them posted it recently.
"He took this photo off of a social media account saying, 'Remember this great day,' and it was a group of children elementary through high school," Brown said. "Mr. Tatum took that photo and altered it so he could see the people in this photo nude."
"We saw two types of images. We saw what we call an 'original image' and then we found a second image that looked altered - it had the same face but the body was now nude instead of having clothes on it," Brown explained.
The role of AI
FBI agents say Tatum used an AI website to create the altered version of the photo. The website gives users the option to “nudify” photos.
Agent Atwood said the website was so good, it was hard to tell the photos were doctored. "It matched very closely, you would have to sit down and really examine that photograph for instance the shoulder width was the same, the hip width was the same, it matched."
WCNC Charlotte asked: "You would think they were real?"
"Yes," Atwood responded.
The photo was taken so many years ago, the victims were stunned. "A lot of these women had to come to the realization that this image was altered by someone they didn’t know and now they were a victim of a federal crime," Brown said.
The agents say Tatum also used cameras to shoot unsuspecting women when he was out and about.
"How we describe it is taking an upskirt photograph of an unknowing person in the grocery store or place of employment ... [they] could be walking up a staircase and they don’t know the person behind them pulled out a cell phone and is recording them walking up the stairs could be a woman wearing a skirt or a dress," Altman explained.
"It's something that’s going to keep happening"
Tatum was convicted last summer. The use of AI to create nudes was a first-of-its-kind case. Because of their work on the case, Charlotte’s agents are now sharing what they learned during the investigation with other law enforcement agencies across the country, as well as with schools and parents. They are seeing a frightening increase in crimes using AI among school-aged kids.
Brown said it's something parents and schools need to be aware of. "We're now seeing cases with kids being extorted with their images and it may not be them but they can’t prove to someone else that it’s not them because of the technology. It's something that’s going to keep happening."
The agents say as quickly as they discover websites and get them taken down, new ones pop up and are typically run overseas.
The agents also gave the following advice: Think twice about the photos you post – it’s out of our hands where they end up.
Contact Michelle Boudin at mboudin@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.