GILMER COUNTY, Ga. — A man remains behind bars after a Georgia sheriff said he used artificial intelligence to make images of minors appear naked.
A student at Gilmer High School told a school resource officer on Dec. 3 that Ronald Richardson, who filled the vending machines at the school, had asked her to send him pictures through a social media app. She told the SRO she felt that was inappropriate.
According to deputies, the student told the SRO that she would talk to Richardson regularly when he was at the school and had done so for a year. She said Richardson would often give her free soft drinks, but this was the first time she had been asked to send him pictures.
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The SRO reported the information to the administration and then forwarded the information to Gilmer County investigators.
Sheriff Stacy Nicholson said this is the first case where AI has been a component of an investigation for the sheriff’s office.
“Unfortunately, I doubt it will be the last,” Nicholson said. “All of the sexually explicit (nude) photographs of the minor children that Richardson is alleged to have possessed are actually normal snapshots, which he captured from various social media pages and then altered (or had altered) using AI to make the images appear nude.”
Richardson was arrested and charged with eight counts of possession of material depicting a minor in sexually explicit conduct. The sheriff’s office anticipates that more charges may be forthcoming.
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Rajiv Garg, Associate Professor of Information Systems at Emory University, said AI face-swapping apps have proliferated in recent years.
“There are so many tools out there publicly available,” he said. “You can go to any website and download the software.”
He said Emory is among a national consortium working on ways to combat the illicit use of AI.
“Our goal is to identify ways to prevent these AI-based models to prevent creating these kinds of images and videos,” Garg described.
Gilmer County Schools released the following statement regarding Richardson:
“The Gilmer County School System will continue to cooperate fully with the investigation and commends the Gilmer County Sheriff’s Office for their professionalism and dedication to this effort. At this time, we are unable to release any specific details of this ongoing investigation.
“Further information concerning this case will be released through the GCSO. Mr. Richardson is not an employee of the Gilmer County School System.”
Nicholson said he intentionally delayed releasing any information due to it still being an active case.
“It has taken a lot of time to identify many of the minors who are victims in this case and there are several minors and parents who we have not been able to notify at this point,” Nicholson said.
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The GCSO said it hope to have all victims and parents notified within the next two days. Anyone who has information regarding the case is urged to contact investigators at 706-635-4646.
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