The New Mexico Department of Justice arrested an Albuquerque man Tuesday for allegedly using AI apps to create child sexual abuse materials.
Richard Gallagher was taken into custody by the NMDOJ’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force for allegedly using AI apps to turn photos of fully clothed minors into nude photos of sexual situations.
NMDOJ received a tip back in September from the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children about the transmission of child sexual abuse materials from a specific IP address, which was later traced to Gallagher.
Gallagher was charged with 12 counts of sexual exploitation of a child, including one count of possession of sexual material of a child under 13 and two counts of manufacturing child sexual abuse material. He faces 47 years in prison and lifetime registration as a sex offender.
The arrest came after this past week it was discovered X’s AI assistant Grok was capable of producing sexualized photos of women and minors. While Gallagher did not use Grok to produce these materials, the Grok revelations prompted the Senate to pass a bill Tuesday addressing the use of AI to create nonconsensual, sexually explicit deepfakes.
Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Grok would join Google AI in operating inside the Pentagon network.
Attorney General Raúl Torrez said this arrest should serve as a wake-up call for lawmakers to better protect people from the dangers of AI.
If you have information about a suspected child predator or child abuse, you can contact federal or local law enforcement.
