Man indicted for AI child sex abuse material in first case of its kind: MCAO
William Powderly (Courtesy: Maricopa County Sheriff's Office)
PHOENIX - The Maricopa County Attorney's office said a man has been indicted on multiple charges for allegedly having AI-generated child sexual abuse material in his possession.
What we know:
Per a statement released on May 12, 43-year-old William Powderly was indicted by a grand jury on 10 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor.
Dig deeper:
According to MCAO, Chandler Police began investigating Powderly, after they received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).
"He was found to have numerous images of CSAM, including two where AI was used to swap a real child victim’s face onto sexually explicit images of another young female," read a portion of the statement.
Why you should care:
Officials with MCAO said this is "the first case involving AI-generated CSAM to be charged" by the office.
"Last year, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office supported HB2678 — sponsored by Rep. Julie Willoughby—which made the punishment the same for sex abuse images of real child victims and AI-generated or digitally altered images that are indistinguishable from real minors. The bill was signed into law by Gov. Katie Hobbs and took effect on September 26, 2025," officials wrote.
The Source: Information for this article was gathered from a statement released by the Maricopa County Attorney's Office.