The Gilmer County Sheriff’s Office is investigating a child pornography case, where the suspect allegedly used artificial intelligence to alter images of students to be sexually explicit.
Ronald Richardson, a vendor working on Gilmer High School’s campus, has been charged with multiple counts of sexual exploitation of children. Sheriff Stacy Nicholson expects that he could be charged with more than 60 counts, as more victims are identified.
In a press release, Nicholson stated that on Dec. 3, a student reported inappropriate behavior by Richardson 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 them appear naked in.
“This is the first case in which artificial intelligence has factored into an investigation like this for the Gilmer Sheriff’s Office,” Nicholson stated. “Unfortunately, I doubt it will be the last.”
He warned that with people putting personal information out on social media sites, and the new abilities AI is capable of, who knows what “devious minds” will do in the future.
Gilmer County Schools Superintendent Dr. Brian Ridley said they are fully cooperating with investigators, and added, “We’re very committed to ensuring the investigation goes to fruition.”
Dr. Ridley explained that Richardson was employed by Pepsi, to service vending machines, and had been doing so at Gilmer High for a while. When vendors work on school campuses, they are typically run through a sex offender database and background check.
When asked if this situation will impact how they hire vendors in the future, Ridley said, “We’re going to allow law enforcement to complete their investigation, and if there’s insights that we can use to make our school safer, we’ll make those changes.”
Richardson is being held at the Gilmer County Detention Center. This is an ongoing investigation.
If you have any information pertaining to this case, you are asked to contact Detective Dan Farnham at 706-635-4646.