An active-duty South Korean police officer indicted for using AI to composite acquaintances' faces to create sexual deepfake images

The Busan District Prosecutors' Office announced on October 7 that it had indicted and detained active police officer A on charges of violating the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Sexual Crimes (editing false sexual images, etc.). A is accused of using AI to composite photos of acquaintances to create more than 400 sexual deepfake images between March 2022 and August this year, sharing about 50 of them with others, and personally filming and creating more than 10 illegal images with a phone. The prosecution also confirmed that he possessed about 1,600 items of child sexual exploitation material and about 1,300 illegal images, for a total of about 5,600 illegal videos. A joined the police force in April 2024, and in 2021 received a conditional suspended indictment for voyeurism charges and was required to undergo education; the prosecution stated that he repeatedly offended over a long period from receiving that disposition until becoming an officer, and long collected materials such as victims' facial photos, believing that the desire to sexually exploit images of women and children was the background motive for his crimes. The Busan District Prosecutors' Office stated it would respond sternly to digital sexual crimes such as using AI technology to create and distribute false images, and would strive to seek sentences commensurate with the severity of the crimes.