ABQ man charged with using AI to create child sexual abuse material

A man charged this week with multiple child sex crimes allegedly used artificial intelligence tools to manufacture pornographic videos using the faces of children he lifted from popular social media platforms.

Richard Gallagher, 68, made his first appearance Wednesday in Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court on 12 felony charges of manufacturing or distribution of visual medium of sexual exploitation of children. He remained in custody Wednesday at the Metropolitan Detention Center.

Gallagher allegedly used readily available AI apps to create nude images of young children and insert himself performing sex acts with the children, Attorney General Raúl Torrez said Wednesday. The Albuquerque man allegedly told investigators he obtained original photos of children "off the internet," according to a pretrial detention motion filed by the New Mexico Department of Justice.

"For those of you who have pictures of your kids on Facebook, I want you to pay very close attention," Torrez told members of the Albuquerque Economic Forum on Wednesday.

"He took readily available public images off of Facebook and other social media platforms and in a matter of months, developed over 4,000 images and videos where he stripped those children of their clothing, created virtual bodies and inserted himself into horrific sex acts with those kids," Torrez said.

Gallagher was charged under existing laws, Torrez told business leaders. But he said lawmakers need to update state laws to provide New Mexicans with protection from the dangers of new tools of technology.

"Fortunately, we have a criminal code that still allows us to charge that kind of activity as a felony crime," he said. "But what we are missing is a forward-looking legal framework that provides clear civil and criminal accountability, not only for the people who engage in that conduct, but the companies who make it possible."

Torrez said he and state Rep. Linda Serrato, D-Santa Fe, plan to announce proposed legislation on Thursday intended to protect New Mexicans from the dangers associated with artificial intelligence. Torrez declined to provide details about the measure on Wednesday.

In a related action, a trial is scheduled to begin Feb. 2 in a lawsuit filed by the New Mexico Department of Justice against social media giant Meta Platforms Inc., the parent company of Facebook and Instagram. The trial is in 1st Judicial District Court in Santa Fe.

The 2023 suit alleges that Meta's platforms put children at risk of sexual abuse, human trafficking and other harms in violation of New Mexico law. Torrez called the action one of the nation's most aggressive legal actions against Meta.

"We survived all the motions to dismiss, all the legal challenges that were brought by their out-of-state legal team, and we will be holding Meta to account in a district court in Santa Fe in just a few weeks' time," Torrez said.

Meanwhile, the case against Gallagher began with a Sept. 3 tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that alerted investigators to suspected child abuse material transmitted on the internet from a location in Albuquerque.

New Mexico Department of Justice investigators executed a search warrant for Gallagher's home on Dec. 9, the pretrial detention motion said. Investigators found images of nude children engaged in sex acts on Gallagher's cellphone, it said.