A Tampa man is facing a mountain of felony charges after detectives say a cyber tip led them to explicit child sexual images in his online cloud accounts, many of which investigators believe were generated with artificial intelligence. Tampa police first arrested 30-year-old Brian Schaaf on June 8, and authorities say he is now charged with more than 100 felonies tied to child sexual imagery.
The investigation began after the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children submitted a tip on May 29 flagging apparent child-sex images in cloud storage, and a subsequent search warrant uncovered a far larger cache, according to Tampa Bay 28. Tampa police ultimately charged Schaaf with 100 felony counts of solicitation or possession of child pornography and six counts of generating altered sexual depictions without consent, FOX 13 reported.
Investigators told reporters they uncovered search histories that included terms such as "AI face swap" and "NSFW AI face swap" and used forensic tools to identify files they believe were synthetic. Members of a U.S. Marshals task force helped track down and arrest Schaaf, FOX 13 reported. "This case is disturbing and incomprehensible," Tampa Police Chief Lee Bercaw told the station, while praising detectives for their work on the case.
What the charges mean in Florida
Florida updated its criminal code in 2025 to make it a crime to knowingly possess, create or distribute AI-generated child sexual images, a change the Florida Attorney General's office highlighted after winning a conviction under the new statute. The Attorney General's March 6, 2025, release frames the law as expanding prosecutors' tools in cases that hinge on synthetic imagery and digital forensics, which could shape how the Hillsborough County State Attorney evaluates the evidence seized in this probe.
Why AI matters to investigators
Child-safety groups and law enforcement officials say generative AI has made it easier to create sexually explicit images that look alarmingly realistic, which raises new forensic challenges when it comes to identifying victims and tracing the origins of files. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children reported more than 1.5 million CyberTipline reports in 2025 with a generative-AI connection and said thousands of investigations involved users generating or possessing AI-related child sexual abuse material, underscoring the scale of the problem police are confronting locally. Investigators say those national trends are showing up in Tampa cases as well, according to NCMEC data.
Local coverage indicates it remains unclear whether detectives have tied any altered images in this case to real-world victims or how many devices were seized during the search warrant, and police have not released those details publicly, Tampa Bay 28 reports. Authorities are asking anyone with relevant information to contact Tampa police, and suspected child sexual material can be reported to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children's CyberTipline at 1-800-843-5678.
