A Hilliard man is headed to federal prison for more than a decade after a judge found he used artificial intelligence to turn images of children into sexually explicit material, then pushed the content online.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Douglas R. Cole sentenced Austin Pittman, 35, to 168 months in federal prison in Columbus. Pittman had pleaded guilty in December to two federal child-pornography charges, according to court records.
In a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio, prosecutors said Pittman admitted he distributed real child sexual abuse images and used AI tools to “morph” photos and videos of minors so the children appeared nude. Prosecutors said the conduct included uploads to the Kik messaging app and that Pittman was arrested after federal and local investigators executed a search warrant at his Hilliard home in April 2025. The sentence was announced by U.S. Attorney Dominick S. Gerace II alongside members of the Franklin County Internet Crimes Against Children task force.
How Investigators Tracked Him Down
Local investigators followed multiple cyber tipline reports back to a user on Kik, and that account activity ultimately led them to a Columbus duplex where Pittman and his family had lived before moving to Hilliard, according to reporting by WHIO. Court documents cited by WHIO say Pittman admitted creating Kik accounts tied to the flagged uploads and told investigators he viewed and shared child sexual abuse material “for the shock factor.” The affidavit also states that investigators recovered images and videos of minors from devices seized during the April 2025 search.
AI at the Center of the Case
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, some of the morphed files were built from photos and videos of real children to whom Pittman had access, including family pictures, then altered with AI so the minors appeared nude. The office also reported that Pittman uploaded 47 files while under investigation at Fort Bragg in 2024, and that he distributed the morphed material on online chat platforms dedicated to child sexual abuse content.
Legal Fallout for AI Abuse Images
Federal authorities treat both the distribution of real child sexual abuse material and the production of morphed images as serious crimes, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office said Pittman’s case is part of the Project Safe Childhood initiative. Experts and recent prosecutions indicate that law enforcement is increasingly treating AI-altered abuse imagery as criminal conduct. The Associated Press has reported on a similar case in the United Kingdom in which a man received an 18-year sentence for creating AI-based child sexual imagery.
Officials say Pittman’s sentence highlights how investigators are adapting to fast-moving technology in child-exploitation cases. Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Czerniejewski is representing the government in the case, according to court filings.
