Man used AI to make child abuse images

A Scottish court has sentenced telecoms worker Risto Bergman, 42, to an 18-month Community Payback Order for generating child sex abuse images using artificial intelligence. Originally from Finland, Bergman used a publicly available AI app and explicit search terms to create highly realistic images of young girls being abused. Prosecutors revealed that the app relied on a digital archive of real child abuse material shared by pedophiles online.

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Some of the AI-generated images were classified as Category A, the UK’s most extreme level of abuse content. The material was discovered on a storage unit in Bergman’s former home in Paisley. Bergman pleaded guilty to the charges and was added to the sex offenders’ register, but avoided jail time. Prosecutor David Bernard emphasised that this was not a victimless crime, as each AI image depicted real children who had been abused to create the source material.