CHARLOTTE, N.C. —A child psychiatrist in Charlotte is headed to prison for using artificial intelligence to create child pornography images of minors, Dena J. King, U.S. attorney for the Western District of North Carolina, announced this week.
David Tatum, 41, was sentenced to 40 years in prison followed by 30 years of supervised release for sexual exploitation of a minor. Tatum was also ordered to pay restitution in an amount to be determined within 90 days, a $100 special assessment per count of conviction, and a special assessment totaling $99,000 under the Amy, Vicky, and Andy Child Pornography Victim Assistance Act.
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According to filed court documents, evidence presented at Tatum’s trial and witness testimony, between 2016 and 2021, Tatum possessed images and videos of child pornography. As trial evidence established, in or about July 2016, Tatum secretly recorded a minor while the minor was undressing and showering. A forensic analysis of electronic devices revealed that Tatum produced the video of the minor and possessed it, along with other images and videos of child pornography. According to trial evidence, Tatum made similar surreptitious recordings of others, including of his patient during an outpatient visit who had just turned 18 years old five days before the recording.
In my opinion 40 years is ridiculous for any crime short of cold-blooded murder or mutilation.
Slamming someone with such a lengthy sentence won’t discourage others, not in the slightest. Future offenders will simply expend more effort to avoid being caught.
Rather, this 41 year old man has been offered up as a sacrificial effigy to stoke the illusion that excessive punishment will (somehow) magically “fix” all of our societal ills…(it won’t.)
Whenever I read about anything pertaining to cp, I get the impression that any offense involving pixels on a screen is, for some inexplicable reason, considered exponentially worse than most “hands on” offenses, and has now been elevated to an almost cosmic level of “depravity”.
We live in a world where virtual “victims” are *literally* being generated by AI software…what a time to be alive.
The way I read it, it wasn’t all AI generated. He recorded actual footage in some cases, and AI generated in others. He was in a trusted role and should be held accountable for that, but I also agree with nameless’ comments.
There’s no way that’s legal. If he’s really, going to prison for creating an image, that HAS to violate the first amendment. Freedom of expression. No actual children are being harmed here. I know one thing, this is the kind of thing we tried to make illegal in Japan of all places back in 2013 under penalty of exclusion from the G8 conference. Japan said, ok as long as we’re only talking about real children here. If we’re talking about drawings, which an image created using AI definitely is, this is a non starter.
You know what the biggest take away from this article? – That the Registry did absolutely nothing to protect those minors from another predator in the guise of authority. Another case of the government acting AFTER the fact. The Registry does absolutely nothing to protect the public while sucks up valuable tax dollars that could be put to better use.
Abolish the Registry!
@William
You used the phrase “except for the face.” In terms of the creation of child pornography (CP), the fact that a person could be recognized creates the harm. This harm could extend for years in terms of simple embarrassment or even effects on careers. Those long lasting effects are the primary rationale for CP laws. I won’t weigh in on the reasonableness of the laws or punishments.
As others have pointed out, the images in this case were not 100% computer generated but with real faces superimposed on bodies generated by artificial intelligence (AI) software. Even if the AI had been trained over a huge data set and no images showed an identifiable minor, they would still be illegal under federal law.
18 USC § 2256(8)(B) defines child pornography to include a “computer-generated image that is, or is indistinguishable from, that of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct”. So under this definition an actual victim, whether identifiable or not, is not required. Just as the courts define responding to a sting operation as an attempt even though no minor victim exists, creating or possessing a photo-realistic rendering of a person’s personal fantasy constitutes a CP crime.
It will be interesting to see the near future where photo realistic CP is 100% AI Generated. AI generated actors, engaged in AI generated scenes. CP that, in no way involves any images of any real persons. Why?
Today, the basis for criminalization of CP possession is that it promotes the abusive behaviors involved with the production. The rational basis of that is, at best, questionable as it presumes that if I wasn’t downloading the image, it wouldn’t have been made in the first place. This disappears entirely when no abuse is involved. You can’t abuse a computer image. How are our good friends K&D going to continue to lock up people for possession of this?
Enter the even more dubious presumption that CP possession is a “Gateway drug” to direct contact crimes. A claim so dubious it is nothing short of absurd, and not even a new kind of absurd.
See if any of these ring a bell:
* Dungeons and Dragons leads to suicide, and devil worshipping in its spare time!
* Violent video games lead to real life violence…and witchery, on occasion.
* Harry Potter promotes Witchery, and we all know WHAT THAT IS!
Few old school ones:
* Rock and Roll promotes premarital sex… Used to be Jazz but R&R took over. Later Heavy Metal drove all the teens to drugs, suicide, violence and of course…Satan! Then “Gangsta Rap”…
* Allowing boys to have long hair promotes homosexuality… turns out Barbie (Doll) is also a relentlessly recruiter for Gayness!!! Whereas short haired girls, or ones that want to play sports…
* Selling alcohol on Sundays promotes criminality! For awhile selling alcohol at anytime did this, but then it was beaten back to just Sundays.
* Trade Unions will doom America to become a Communist Regime!
* See the movie, “Refer madness” for details on the litany horrors smoking just one joint will inexorably doom you to for life!
In a sick way, I almost admire America’s ability to justify the crazy over and over and over again.