Maricopa County prosecutors on Tuesday charged a Chandler man in what they say is the county’s first case involving child sexual abuse material created or altered with artificial intelligence. Forty-four-year-old William Powderly was indicted on 10 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor and has pleaded not guilty, according to court records.
The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office says a grand jury returned the indictment after investigators uncovered numerous images of child sexual abuse material, including two photos in which artificial intelligence was allegedly used to swap a real child’s face onto sexually explicit images of another young female, according to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office.
Chandler police launched the investigation after receiving a CyberTip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and used digital forensics to trace an IP address to Powderly’s devices, according to court filings and local reporting. Arizona's Family reports that investigators arrested Powderly at his Chandler home on April 21, that court paperwork alleges he possessed sexual videos involving grade-school and teenage girls, and that he is being held on a $150,000 cash-only bond.
Arizona law now treats AI-generated images as CSAM
State lawmakers moved last year to close a legal loophole after prosecutors warned that artificial intelligence tools were being used to create lifelike sexual images of children. House Bill 2678 updated Arizona's definitions so computer-generated or digitally altered images that are indistinguishable from real minors can be prosecuted in the same way as traditional child sexual abuse material, according to a legislative press release by the Arizona House of Representatives.
Prosecutors nationwide are treating AI material as criminal
The Maricopa County case comes as agencies across the country move to treat artificial intelligence depictions as evidence of child exploitation crimes. Earlier this year a federal jury convicted a defendant who created and possessed AI-generated child sexual imagery, and reporting from other states shows prosecutors pursuing cases tied to AI-morphed images, according to the Department of Justice and the Star Tribune.
What Powderly faces under state law
Powderly was indicted on 10 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, a Class Two felony that the county attorney’s office says also meets the threshold for a dangerous crime against children. That DCAC designation brings enhanced sentencing ranges and often eliminates probation and early-release options under Arizona law, according to Arizona Revised Statutes §13-705.
Online court records show Powderly has pleaded not guilty, KJZZ reported, and the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office noted in its release that “A criminal charge is merely an accusation, and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.”
