RICHMOND, Va. (WWBT)—Artificial intelligence has taken over our phones and computers, and now young people are using it to create fake images that could be damaging to their classmates.

Some students across the country are taking their classmates’ photos, swapping their faces from one to sexually explicit images using AI.

A spokesperson for the FBI in Richmond said this is a growing matter across the nation.

“We’ve seen an uptick of young people using it to create fake photos, in particular, those that are in sexual nature and they’re doing face swaps and things like that of themselves and maybe even friends,” social media safety expert Marcy Thornhill said.

Thornhill said right now, there’s a growing trend across the country of students using artificial intelligence to create fake nude photos of their classmates.

“The governor did enact Executive Order 30 that does speak to the use of AI across the Commonwealth, but for the school systems in particular, we need to look at some of the bylaws and guidelines that we want to use to support and prevent the use of AI,” Thornhill.

Students and teachers in Illinois, New Jersey, Florida, California and Washington state have reported these embarrassing deepfake experiences where they found faces put onto a sexually explicit image.

The FBI issued a warning in March, saying that child sexual abuse material or CSAM created with content manipulation technologies, like AI, including realistic computer-generated images, is illegal.

“For parents in particular, you want to be diligent, just like you are with social media looking at what they’re doing on their applications because AI is everywhere,” Thornhill said.

And AI is not going anywhere. Thornhill said that because the technology is so advanced, it can be hard to catch these things before they happen.

“Look at your ‘why’ and talk to someone if you are a young person on the use of AI if it’s a good idea,” Thornhill said. “Parents have the conversations at home. It is very important. You cannot disregard it because you can never know what can happen.”

Richmond FBI couldn’t share details or stats on any possible cases locally.

However, 20 states, including Virginia, have enacted laws addressing nonconsensual sexual deep fakes.

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