Police Bust Global Ring Sharing AI-Generated Child Abuse Images
The Europol headquarters in The Hague, Netherlands.
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Europol said 25 people have been arrested as part of a group that was allegedly distributing artificial intelligence-generated images of child sexual abuse, in one of the first major cases involving this type of tech-enabled crime.
Most of the arrests took place on Wednesday as part of a crackdown known as Operation Cumberland, which has identified more than 250 suspects in 19 countries including the UK, Australia, France and Germany, Europol said in a statement on Friday. They follow the detention last year of a Danish man who ran an online platform to distribute AI-generated material that he produced, which others paid to access. More arrests are expected in the coming weeks.