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

August 1, 2021

David Tatum, a psychiatrist, was sentenced to 40 years for sexually exploiting a minor and using AI to create child pornography images. The incident underscores the importance of trustworthy AI governance and harm prevention measures. According to reports, 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 he possessed photos and videos between 2016 and 2021. This tragic incident underscores the need for safe and secure AI practices.

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Matched TAIM controls

Suggested mapping from embedding similarity (not a formal assessment). Browse all TAIM controls

MAP 4.1 — similarity 0.647, rank 1. TAIM detail and related incidents →
MAP 1.6 — similarity 0.643, rank 2. TAIM detail and related incidents →
MEASURE 2.6 — similarity 0.635, rank 3. TAIM detail and related incidents →

Alleged deployer: david-tatum
Alleged developer: unknown
Alleged harmed parties: minors-exploited-in-the-images, general-public

Source

Data from the AI Incident Database (AIID). Cite this incident: https://incidentdatabase.ai/cite/605

Data source

Incident data is from the AI Incident Database (AIID).

When citing the database as a whole, please use:

McGregor, S. (2021) Preventing Repeated Real World AI Failures by Cataloging Incidents: The AI Incident Database. In Proceedings of the Thirty-Third Annual Conference on Innovative Applications of Artificial Intelligence (IAAI-21). Virtual Conference.

Pre-print on arXiv · Database snapshots & citation guide

We use weekly snapshots of the AIID for stable reference. For the official suggested citation of a specific incident, use the “Cite this incident” link on each incident page.