North Carolina Psychiatrist Used Artificial Intelligence to Produce Images of Child Sex Abuse

David Tatum, a psychiatrist, was sentenced to 40 years for sexually exploiting a minor and using AI to create child pornography images. Tatum used a web-based AI application to alter clothed images of minors into explicit content, misusing technology for illegal and unethical purposes. Evidence presented during his trial showed Tatum possessed photos and videos between 2016 and 2021.

Risk classification

• Primary risk domain: 1 Discrimination & Toxicity
• Primary risk subdomain: 1.2 Exposure to toxic content

The incident involves the creation of child sexual abuse material (CSAM), which is explicitly classified as toxic and harmful content under this sub-domain.

Additional risk subdomains

• 4.3 Fraud, scams, and targeted manipulation: The perpetrator used AI to sexualize the likeness of specific minors by digitally altering their clothed photos into explicit images.

Causal factors

• Entity: Human
• Intent: Intentional
• Timing: Post-deployment

The harm was directly caused by a human perpetrator who intentionally used a deployed web-based AI application to generate child sexual abuse material.

EU AI Act risk tier

• Risk tier: 1 Unacceptable

Unacceptable Risk: The report describes the use of an AI system to generate child sexual abuse material (CSAM), which is an exploitative and deeply harmful activity that violates fundamental human rights and poses significant dangers to society.

AI system and alleged parties

• AI system: None named
• AI purpose: Deepfake Image Generation; Image Retouching
• Behaviour type: Tool
• Alleged developer: unknown
• Alleged deployer: David Tatum
• Alleged harmed parties: Minors Exploited in the Images, General public

Harm severity

Severity ratings are based on this scale.

Highest direct severity in any category: Substantial. Severity is scored from Negligible to Catastrophic in each harm category, for harm the reports describe as caused directly or indirectly by the AI system.

• Physical: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Infrastructure: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Property: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Financial: direct Minor, indirect Negligible
• Environmental: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Malicious content: direct Substantial, indirect Negligible
• Differential treatment: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Civil rights: direct Minor, indirect Negligible
• Democracy: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Privacy: direct Minor, indirect Negligible
• Psychological: direct Negligible, indirect Minor
• Epistemic: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Child sexual exploitation and abuse: direct Substantial, indirect Negligible

Financial

Reported: The report describes 1 incident causing total financial loss of $99000 in court-ordered special assessments, plus a $100 assessment per count of conviction and undetermined restitution.

Directly caused: Average financial loss per occurrence: $99300

Inferred additional harm: The victims and their families likely incurred unquantified financial costs related to legal representation, mental health counseling, and therapy.

Malicious content

Reported: The report explicitly describes toxic and malicious content created directly by the incident.

Directly caused: The perpetrator used a web-based AI application to alter clothed images of minors into sexually explicit child pornography.

Civil rights

Reported: The report explicitly describes violations of human and civil rights caused directly by the incident.

Directly caused: The perpetrator violated the fundamental human rights of minors by generating sexually explicit images of them without their consent.

Privacy

Reported: The report explicitly describes privacy violations caused directly by the incident.

Directly caused: The perpetrator violated the privacy of minors by using their personal, clothed photos to generate sexually explicit images.

Psychological

Reported: The report explicitly notes the damaging, long-lasting impact sexual exploitation has on the wellbeing of victimized children.

Indirectly caused: The creation of sexually explicit deepfakes of the minors from their school photos causes severe psychological distress, trauma, and anxiety to the victims and their families.

Inferred additional harm: Severe, long-term psychological trauma and anxiety are highly likely for all six identified minor victims and their families upon discovering their images were turned into CSAM.

Child sexual exploitation and abuse

Reported: The report explicitly describes a CSEA incident where AI was used to generate CSAM from clothed photos of minors.

Directly caused: The perpetrator used a web-based AI application to alter images of clothed minors into sexually explicit child pornography.

People affected

• Occurrences reported: 1
• People reportedly harmed: 6
• People reportedly exposed: 6

Potential causes

Technology

• Web-based Deepfake AI Tools: Web-based AI apps allowed easy digital alteration of clothed photos into CSAM.
• Lack of AI Abuse Safeguards: The AI tool lacked filters to block generating explicit images of minors.

Data Inputs

• Clothed Photos of Minors: Photos from school dances and first day of school were used as input data.
• Publicly Accessible Images: Socially posted photos of minors were easily accessed and misused by the user.

Human Factors

• Perpetrator Sex Addiction: The psychiatrist suffered from a compulsive sexual addiction and voyeurism.
• Morality Blinded by Compulsion: The user held a fallacy that digital alteration would not harm anyone.

Process and Methods

• Inadequate Platform Moderation: The web application lacked active moderation to detect illicit image generation.

Regulatory Environment

• Emerging Tech Regulation Gaps: Rapid advancement of generative AI outpaced active regulatory oversight.

Information quality

• Classification confidence: High
• Reason for confidence: The reports provide consistent, detailed, and clear information regarding the perpetrator's actions, the court conviction, the specific use of AI to alter images of minors, and the number of victims identified by the FBI. There is no conflicting information regarding the AI's role as a tool to generate CSAM.
• Ambiguities identified: The specific name or developer of the web-based AI application is not identified in the reports.
• Alternative interpretations: None. The legal facts and the role of AI in generating the explicit images are clearly established by federal court evidence.

A domestic criminal incident where an individual used a web-based AI application to generate child sexual abuse material. While representing a severe violation of human rights and an evolved capability for generating illicit content, the incident has negligible direct national security implications and is managed within standard domestic law enforcement frameworks.

• Overall national security impact: Minor
• Scope: Single nation
• Primary target: United States
• Alleged perpetrator: Individual

Threat characteristics

• Imminence: Long-term. The perpetrator has been apprehended and sentenced; the threat represents an ongoing societal and law enforcement concern rather than an active national security crisis.
• Autonomy: Human-controlled. The AI system functioned strictly as a tool under the direct control and intent of the human perpetrator.
• Novelty: Evolved capability. Represents a significant technological evolution in the creation of child sexual abuse material through automated deepfake generation.

Impact by dimension

• Physical security: Negligible. No physical systems, critical infrastructure, or kinetic targeting systems were affected or compromised in this incident.
• Information security: Negligible. The incident did not involve information warfare, intelligence compromise, state-sponsored disinformation, or theft of classified AI models.
• Sovereignty: Negligible. No threats to state authority, electoral systems, border control, or core government operations were identified.
• Economic security: Negligible. No strategic technology theft, financial system attacks, or critical supply chain disruptions occurred.
• Societal stability: Minor. Severe violation of individual human rights through AI-generated child sexual abuse material, though localized to a single criminal actor without population-scale impact.