Assam man held for posting AI-generated morphed pics, videos of woman online

Dibrugarh: A person has been arrested in Assam's Tinsukia district for allegedly morphing photographs and creating AI-generated pornographic videos of a woman and circulating those on social media, a senior police officer said on Sunday.

Dibrugarh Senior Superintendent of Police (in-charge) Sizal Agarwal said a complaint was received from the victim on Saturday stating that morphed images and videos were being used to defame her.

The victim had been in the spotlight for the last few weeks after her purported image with an adult film actor surfaced, with claims that the Assam woman has joined the adult film industry in the US.

"We received a complaint yesterday that the morphed and AI-generated photos and videos of the victim were being circulated on social media. The reference of an Instagram page was included with it, and when we searched for credentials of the page owner, we found a phone number which we traced to the accused," Agarwal said.

"The accused had used the image of the victim to generate several obscene content and pornographic materials using AI software. They have a past acquaintance, and he did it due to personal reasons," he added.

The accused, a mechanical engineer by qualification, was arrested from Tinsukia on Saturday night, the SSP (in-charge) said.

Agarwal said the crime, which initially started as a harassment tactic, continued when the accused began monetising the content.

"There was a subscription link to the adult content that he had posted, and people had to pay to access it. He earned about Rs 10 lakh through it. He kept on continuing the crime as he got greedy, though he had initiated it for harassing the woman," she said.

The officer said multiple agencies will be involved in the investigation as digital evidence has to be examined, with the police seizing laptop, mobile phones, hard disk and other items from the accused.

Agarwal also urged people to be careful while accessing online content and, have a closer look before circulating any information they receive on social media.