A Massachusetts man was sentenced to nine years in prison for a 16-year cyberstalking campaign that included using AI chatbots to impersonate a  victim and "dox" her by providing her real home addresses to strangers, thereby inciting physical-world harassment and potential sexual violence. 

James Florence Jr. was accused of using AI to generate fake nude images of the woman, and of creating a chatbot in her likeness that gave out her name, address, and personal details on a website for AI-powered sex bots.

Florence allegedly posted 128 images, including nude fakes, of the woman 687 times on a forum for shaming women, along with her personal information, and programmed the woman's information into two public chatbot websites to impersonate her.

The chatbots were programmed with the victim's date of birth, home address, employment, education, hobbies, typical dress, names of family/friends, and even her mother's death date. If asked where she lived, the chatbot would reply with her real address followed by "Why don't you come over?"

The case shows that stalkers are using AI to create nonconsensual sexual imagery and attempting to digitally recreate victims as sex bots to harass them. 

Generative AI allows for the automatic creation and rapid dissemination of harassing messages, emails, and comments, greatly amplifying the impact of cyberbullying.

Doxing via AI is also a growing concern, as these technologies can compile and publicly share personal information about others without permission.

Legal, regulatory 👩🏼‍⚖️

• Affavadavit in support of a criminal complaint and arrest warrant

• United States Attorney's Office. Plymouth Man Arrested for Seven-Year-Long Cyberstalking Campaign

News, commentary, analysis 🗞️

• https://www.404media.co/email/b1361ddc-53d6-4553-b07f-7d064539200e/

• https://www.boston.com/news/crime/2024/09/11/plymouth-man-allegedly-used-ai-to-impersonate-stalk-harrass-mass-woman/

• https://ktvo.com/news/nation-world/massachusetts-man-accused-of-cyberstalking-and-using-ai-to-mimic-conversations-online-stalker-used-ai-to-torment-and-humiliate-victim-for-years-arrested-acting-united-states-attorney-joshua-s-levy-says-james-florence-jr-doxing-dox