High School Student in Córdoba, Argentina Accused of Using AI to Generate Explicit Images of Classmates

An 18-year-old Argentine student at the pre-university institute of Manuel Belgrano of Córdoba allegedly used AI tools to generate explicit fake images of at least 22 female classmates by combining their faces with other bodies. These images, posted on pornography websites, included the victims' names, leading to harassment and significant psychological harm. Legal authorities charged the student with serious injuries aggravated by gender violence.

Risk classification

• Primary risk domain: 4 Malicious actors
• Primary risk subdomain: 4.3 Fraud, scams, and targeted manipulation

The student used AI to create humiliating and sexual imagery targeting specific classmates for personal harassment, which falls under targeted manipulation and harassment.

Additional risk subdomains

• 1.2 Exposure to toxic content: The generated explicit sexual images were uploaded to public pornographic websites, exposing the victims and the public to toxic and abusive content.

Causal factors

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

The harm was directly caused by a human student who intentionally used a deployed AI tool to generate and distribute non-consensual sexual images of his classmates.

EU AI Act risk tier

• Risk tier: 3 Limited Risk

Limited Risk: The report describes the creation of deepfakes (AI-generated content), which falls under Risk Level 3 due to transparency and disclosure obligations for synthetic media.

AI system and alleged parties

• AI system: unspecified
• AI purpose: Deepfake Image Generation; Image Generation
• Behaviour type: Tool
• Alleged developer: Unknown deepfake technology developers
• Alleged deployer: Unnamed 18-year-old Manuel Belgrano male student
• Alleged harmed parties: Unnamed Manuel Belgrano female students

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

Malicious content

Reported: Yes, the report explicitly describes the creation and distribution of explicit sexual deepfakes.

Directly caused: The student created non-consensual sexual images of 22 female classmates and uploaded them to pornographic websites.

Differential treatment

Reported: Yes, the prosecutor explicitly frames the incident as gender-based violence.

Directly caused: Female classmates were targeted specifically based on their gender, resulting in sexual objectification and digital violence.

Civil rights

Reported: Yes, the report describes violations of the victims' rights to dignity and freedom from gender-based violence.

Directly caused: The non-consensual creation and public distribution of sexualized images violated the basic human rights and dignity of 22 female students.

Privacy

Reported: Yes, the report describes the non-consensual use of the victims' names and faces.

Directly caused: The student violated the privacy of 22 classmates by using their real names, surnames, and facial likenesses to create and publish sexual content.

Psychological

Reported: Yes, the report explicitly describes psychological harm to the victims.

Directly caused: Two victims are undergoing psychological treatment, and a psychiatric evaluation confirmed that one victim suffered documented psychological damage ('dano en su psiquis').

Inferred additional harm: It is highly likely that the other 20 victims suffered similar psychological distress, anxiety, and trauma due to the public exposure of their sexualized likenesses.

Child sexual exploitation and abuse

Reported: Yes, the report explicitly mentions that some victims were minors under 18.

Directly caused: The creation of explicit sexual representations of minors (17-year-old classmates) constitutes child sexual exploitation material under Argentine legal frameworks discussed in the report.

People affected

• Occurrences reported: 1
• People reportedly harmed: 22
• People reportedly exposed: 22

Potential causes

Technology

• Unrestricted AI Image Generation: AI software allowed blending real faces with explicit bodies without blocks.
• Lack of Deepfake Detection: Hosting platforms lacked automated tools to detect and block AI deepfakes.

Data Inputs

• Scraped Social Media Photos: Victims' public Instagram photos were used as input data for the AI tool.

Human Factors

• Malicious Intent of Perpetrator: An 18-year-old student deliberately created non-consensual sexual imagery.
• Disregard for Consent: The perpetrator ignored the consent and psychological well-being of victims.

Process and Methods

• Inadequate Upload Verification: Pornography sites failed to verify consent before publishing the media.

Regulatory Environment

• Legal Vacuum for AI Deepfakes: Argentinian criminal code lacked specific laws targeting AI-generated abuse.

Information quality

• Classification confidence: High
• Reason for confidence: The report provides clear, detailed factual information regarding the number of victims, the legal charges, the psychological harm, and the student's actions. The legal context and statements from the prosecutor provide high credibility.
• Ambiguities identified: The specific AI software or platform used by the student is not named.

An 18-year-old student in Argentina used AI to generate and distribute explicit non-consensual deepfakes of 22 classmates. While causing severe psychological harm to the victims and highlighting domestic legal gaps, the incident is a localized criminal matter with negligible national security implications.

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

Threat characteristics

• Imminence: Long-term. The perpetrator has been charged and the immediate event is contained, though the broader trend of synthetic media abuse represents an ongoing regulatory concern.
• Autonomy: Human-controlled. The AI system was used strictly as a tool by the student, who manually input the images and directed the generation process.
• Novelty: Established threat. Non-consensual deepfake pornography is a well-documented and established abuse of generative AI tools globally.

Impact by dimension

• Physical security: Negligible. The incident is a localized case of digital harassment targeting school classmates, with no threat to physical infrastructure or kinetic systems.
• Information security: Negligible. There is no evidence of foreign state involvement, intelligence compromise, or systematic information warfare campaigns.
• Sovereignty: Negligible. No threat to state authority, electoral systems, or core governmental decision-making processes occurred.
• Economic security: Negligible. The incident did not involve strategic technology theft, financial system attacks, or economic manipulation.
• Societal stability: Minor. The incident represents localized gender-based violence and severe privacy violations of 22 students. While highly damaging to the victims, it does not threaten broad societal stability.