Police open criminal investigation into Beverly Hills AI-nude photos incident

The Beverly Hills Police Department launched a criminal investigation into reports of students making fake nude photos of their classmates.

Beverly Hills, California, police are investigating reports that students made fake nude photos of their classmates at a middle school, a city official said Wednesday. 

Deputy City Manager Keith Sterling said the department is investigating students at Beverly Vista Middle School who authorities say used artificial intelligence tools to create the images and share them with other students.  

School officials were made aware of the “AI-generated nude photos” last week, Sterling said in a letter to parents.

Students and parents told NBC News they were afraid to go to school or send their children to school after the incident, which follows a string of similar AI-generated nude photo cases at schools around the world. The emergence of sophisticated and accessible apps and programs that “undress” or “nudify” photos and “face-swap” tools that superimpose victims’ faces onto pornographic content have led to an explosion of nonconsensual sexually explicit deepfakes that predominantly target women and girls.

Security guards at Beverly Vista Middle School in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Monday.Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times via Getty ImagesThe president of the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative, Mary Anne Franks, a professor at George Washington University Law School, has told NBC News that the AI-generated nude photos of students could be illegal depending on the facts of a case and what the images depict. 

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/beverly-hills-ai-nude-photos-middle-school-vista-rcna140965

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