An Ohio man pleaded guilty on Tuesday to cybercrimes involving real and AI-generated “sexually explicit images”, becoming what the Department of Justice claims is the first person convicted under a new federal AI statute.
James Strahler II, 37, admitted to cyberstalking, producing obscene visual representations of child sexual abuse, and publication of digital forgeries. The last charge relates to the Take It Down Act, which “prohibits non-consensual online publication of intimate visual depictions and AI forgeries”.
“We believe Strahler is the first person in the United States to be convicted under the Take It Down Act,” Dominick Gerace II, US attorney for the southern district of Ohio, said. “We will not tolerate the abhorrent practice of posting and publicizing AI-generated intimate images of real individuals without consent.”
“We are committed to using every tool at our disposal to hold accountable offenders like Strahler, who seek to intimidate and harass others by creating and circulating this disturbing content.”
Donald Trump signed the Take It Down Act into law last May. Melania Trump, the first lady, lobbied lawmakers to pass the legislation and symbolically signed it.
The law prohibits anyone from “knowingly” publishing or threatening to publish intimate images, including AI-made “deepfake” images, without consent. Social media companies and websites must remove violating content within 48 hours following a victim’s request.
Prosecutors said Strahler sent harassing messages to at least six adult females, including both real and AI-created nude images of them, from December 2025 to June 2025.
Strahler purportedly used AI to make pornographic videos showing at least one adult victim engaging in sexual activity with her father and “distributed those videos to the victim’s co-workers”.
Strahler, according to prosecutors, sent messages to the mothers of these women and demanded nude pictures of them, “threatening to circulate explicit or obscene images he created of their daughters if they did not comply”.
“He often called the victims and left voicemails of him masturbating or threatening rape,” prosecutors said.
Prosecutors also said Strahler published AI-generated obscene material involving children, “using the faces of minor boys from his community”.
He would then purportedly put the minors’ faces on to the bodies of adults or other children and make obscene videos with AI. In total, prosecutors said, Strahler created “more than 700 images of both real victims and animated persons and posted them to a website dedicated to child sexual abuse”.
Strahler’s lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
