College Student Allegedly Created Undressed Images Of Classmates With AI, Then Sold Them

A Northern Illinois University student was arrested Tuesday after authorities said he admitted to using artificial intelligence to create deepfake child sexual abuse material of female students, most of whom he went to high school with.

“There was one from when I was 15. I’m almost 20 years old now,” one victim told Chicago station WGN-TV.

The victim’s adolescent photo was one of many images that 19-year-old Michael Erickson allegedly used to produce realistic-looking images with the help of AI, according to the outlet. Police say most of the victims had been Erickson’s classmates and were between 13 and 17 years old at the time the photos were taken.

Erickson was charged this week with 21 felony counts related to child sex abuse material, including “production of child pornography, disseminating child pornography and possession of child pornography,” according to a press release shared with HuffPost.

A lawyer listed in Erickson’s records did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Erickson’s arrest stemmed from a tip Batavia police received in April from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, according to a charging document obtained by HuffPost. A month later, DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office deputies searched Erickson’s dorm room at Northern Illinois University to find 20,000 images of suspected child sexual abuse material.

A spokesperson for Northern Illinois University told ABC affiliate WLS-TV that “the student no longer lives in campus housing.”

Deputies noted that several photos of one victim on Erickson’s devices had been uploaded to Telegram, a messaging platform, according to the document. Users in the Telegram chat paid Erickson to have that victim’s clothing removed in the images.

In total, Erickson “disseminated more than 35 deep fake images” of that victim to others online, including on Snapchat, police said. That victim told police she was 17 years old at the time her photo was taken, and that she had graduated from high school with Erickson.

Deputies went on to list several more victims who attended high school with Erickson, the youngest being 13 at the time her photo was taken. Erickson allegedly disseminated thousands of images of child sex abuse material —including both photos and videos — since at least the end of February to March.

According to a Snapchat conversation from March 3 cited in the document, Erickson told a prospective buyer that he charged “cheap” prices, which he listed as “10$ for 10 pics 5$ for 5 and 20$ for 20.” When asked by another user why he made so many images, Erickson responded, “to sell them to boys.”

Erickson was granted pretrial release Tuesday and ordered not to have any contact with minors or access to the internet, WGN-TV reports. He is due in court on July 17.