csam meets ai Under new law, cops bust famous cartoonist for AI-generated child sex abuse images Darrin Bell won a major cartooning award in 2019. Nate Anderson Jan 17, 2025 4:08 pm | 44 Darrin Bell in happier times. Credit: Andri Tambunan | Getty Images Darrin Bell in happier times. Credit: Andri Tambunan | Getty Images Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreLate last year, California passed a law against the possession or distribution of child sex abuse material (CSAM) that has been generated by AI. The law went into effect on January 1, and Sacramento police announced yesterday that they have already arrested their first suspecta 49-year-old Pulitzer-prize-winning cartoonist named Darrin Bell.The new law, which you can read here, declares that AI-generated CSAM is harmful, even without an actual victim. In part, says the law, this is because all kinds of CSAM can be used to groom children into thinking sexual activity with adults is normal. But the law singles out AI-generated CSAM for special criticism due to the way that generative AI systems work."The creation of CSAM using AI is inherently harmful to children because the machine-learning models utilized by AI have been trained on datasets containing thousands of depictions of known CSAM victims," it says, "revictimizing these real children by using their likeness to generate AI CSAM images into perpetuity."The law defines "artificial intelligence" as "an engineered or machine-based system that varies in its level of autonomy and that can, for explicit or implicit objectives, infer from the input it receives how to generate outputs that can influence physical or virtual environments."Acting on a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the Sacramento Valley Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force recently opened an investigation into 18 CSAM files being shared online. Further investigation revealed that the sharer was actually offering 134 CSAM videos, and police claim they were able to trace those files to the account of local resident and well-known cartoonist Darrin Bell.On Wednesday, police executed a warrant on Bell's home; they claim to have recovered "evidence related to the case, as well as computer-generated/AI CSAM." Bell was arrested and is being held on $1 million bail. In a statement, police noted that "this case was the first arrest by Sacramento Valley ICAC where possession of computer-generated/AI CSAM was charged against a suspect."Bell has long been a cartoonist. In 2019, he won a Pulitzer prize "for beautiful and daring editorial cartoons that took on issues affecting disenfranchised communities, calling out lies, hypocrisy and fraud in the political turmoil surrounding the Trump administration."According to local coverage of the case from NBC, Bell "has said the goal of his work is for people to be more respectful of human dignity."Nate AndersonDeputy EditorNate AndersonDeputy Editor Nate is the deputy editor at Ars Technica. His most recent book is In Emergency, Break Glass: What Nietzsche Can Teach Us About Joyful Living in a Tech-Saturated World, which is much funnier than it sounds. 44 Comments