Richardson is charged with 120 counts of using AI to alter photos of children
An additional 44 charges were added to the indictment of a Gilmer County man charged with using Artificial Intelligence to alter pictures of children into sexually explicit material.
More than 100 victims are represented in the updated indictment, including victims from outside the state, according to a release from the Office of the DeKalb County District Attorney.
Ronald Richardson, 47, was indicted July 8, by a Gilmer County Grand Jury on 120 counts of sexual exploitation of children, according to the release.
Richardson was originally indicted on 76 counts April 16.
“This is the first case in which Artificial Intelligence has factored into an investigation like this for the Gilmer Sheriff’s Office,” Gilmer County Sheriff Stacy Nicholson said at the time of Richardson’s arrest. “Unfortunately, I doubt it will be the last.”
More than 100 victims are represented in the updated indictment, including victims from outside the state, according to the release.
Richardson was arrested and charged Jan. 17, following an investigation by the Gilmer County Sheriff’s Office.
In a press release following the arrest, Nicholson stated that on Dec. 3, a student reported inappropriate behavior by Richardson, who was working for a vendor at the high school, to Gilmer High’s school resource officer. The student told the SRO that he asked her to send him photos through a social media app.
The student said she communicated with Richardson often over the past year, while he refilled campus vending machines, but this was the first time he ever asked her to send photos.
The GCSO Criminal Investigations Division discovered that all of the sexually explicit images of minors were originally normal photos from social media, which Richardson is accused of using AI to make the underage victims appear naked.
The DeKalb County District Attorney agreed in February to serve as conflict prosecutor for the case at the request of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia, according to the release.
The investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information pertaining to this case is asked to contact Detective Dan Farnham at 706-635-4646.