Two men charged with AI deepfake porn under new ‘Take It Down’ law

Summary

Federal prosecutors charged two men with using artificial intelligence to create nude videos and photos of female celebrities under a newly enacted law targeting deepfake pornography.

Cornelius Shannon, 51, and Arturo Hernandez, 20, were arrested Tuesday, according to criminal complaints, as federal officials said the AI-generated sexually explicit content drew millions of views online.

Prosecutors said Shannon, a resident of New Jersey, published at least 240 albums of AI-generated pornography featuring female politicians, musicians and singers. They said the deepfakes Hernandez, of Texas, generated included both celebrities and private women, including recent high school graduates.

The charges come under the Take It Down Act, a law signed last year by President Donald Trump that adds stricter penalties for publishing AI-created deepfakes and “revenge porn,” according to prosecutors and the complaints. The bill received bipartisan support and had the public backing of first lady Melania Trump.

In a statement, Joseph Nocella, the U.S. attorney in Brooklyn, said the men “used cutting-edge digital technology to create images that degraded and violated” dozens of women. Nocella added that the case “makes clear that posting deepfake pornography is not a victimless crime.”

Under the new law, prosecutors said Shannon and Hernandez face up to two years in prison. Attorneys for both men did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The arrests also follow a series of earlier enforcement and legal actions involving AI-generated explicit imagery. In April, an Ohio man became the first person convicted under the Take It Down Act after pleading guilty to using AI to generate child sexual abuse material.

Earlier this year, the AP said two teenage boys in Pennsylvania received probation for creating explicit AI images of classmates, and in a separate case filed earlier this year in Tennessee, three teenagers sued Elon Musk’s xAI, alleging Grok tools morphed their real photos into explicitly sexual images; they are seeking class-action status to represent thousands of people they say were victimized as minors.