Man Charged with Child Pornography in Waukesha County Under New AI Law
An Illinois man has been charged with child pornography in Waukesha County, Wisconsin, under a new law aimed at penalizing offenders who utilize artificial intelligence to create explicit images.
Details of the Charges
Aidan Brewis, a 20-year-old from Gary, Illinois, faces three counts of possession of virtual child pornography, a class D felony that was not legislated in Wisconsin until 20 months ago.
According to the Jan. 20 criminal complaint, Brewis allegedly used an AI generator along with photographs of a 15-year-old girl from Lisbon, whom he knew personally, to produce sexually explicit videos and images saved on his cellphone.
Investigators recovered 50 AI-generated files from Brewis’s device. Brewis claimed that he retained the images for personal use and did not share them.
Wisconsin’s Legislative Context
Wisconsin has recently enacted a ban that broadens the definition of child pornography to encompass digital or computer-generated images that appear to depict children engaged in sexually explicit conduct, regardless of whether the child is real.
This law came into effect on March 29, 2024, positioning Wisconsin among 45 states that have criminalized AI-generated child pornography.
