They created AI nudes that got millions of views online. Now they’re being charged with crimes
Two men have been charged with creating AI-generated nude content of female celebrities under a new law aimed at combating deepfake pornography. Cornelius Shannon and Arturo Hernandez face up to two years in prison for their actions, which have drawn significant public attention. This case highlights the legal repercussions of using advanced technology for exploitative purposes, as well as the ongoing concerns about the spread of such content online.
- ▪Federal prosecutors charged Cornelius Shannon and Arturo Hernandez with creating AI-generated nude content.
- ▪The charges are among the first under the Take It Down Act, which imposes stricter penalties for deepfake pornography.
- ▪Shannon published over 240 albums of AI-generated pornography featuring various women, while Hernandez's content included both celebrities and private individuals.
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| Original publisher | Fortune |
| Canonical URL | https://fortune.com/2026/05/22/they-created-ai-nudes-that-got-millions-of-views-online-now-theyre-being-charged-with-crimes/ |
| Publication time | Fri, 22 May 2026 15:04:18 +0000 |
| Retrieval time | 2026-05-22T15:17:02.414Z |
| Last seen | 2026-05-22T15:17:02.414Z |
| Headline source | Publisher (no WeSearch rewrite) |
| Excerpt source | publisher body |
| Excerpt method | First ~120 words (~800 chars) of extracted publisher body, fair-use limited. |
| Summary | WeSearch · cerebras-chat (WeSearch summarizer) |
| Summary source text | contentText |
| Citation coverage | Summary is a WeSearch-generated derivative; primary citation is the original publisher URL. |
| Cluster | W9ItqqJizTzV |
| Cluster logic | Grouped by semantic title/content similarity across sources within a rolling window. Same-publisher template collisions are excluded from coverage comparison. |
| Ranking reason | Story pages are not engagement-ranked. Hub feeds use recency, with optional source-diversified chronological ordering (cap consecutive stories per source). No personalized ranking. |
| Publisher visit | Yes — open original |
| Substitutes article? | No — link-out required for full text |
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| Indexing | May the item be indexed (stored, ranked, made findable)? | Allowed |
| Snippet | May a short excerpt of the publisher's text be shown? | Allowed |
| AI summary | May WeSearch generate its own short summary of the article? | Limited |
| Retrieval / RAG | May the content be exposed for third-party retrieval-augmented generation? | Not asserted |
| Model training | May the content be used to train AI models? | Not asserted |
| Commercial reuse | May the content be reused commercially? | Not permitted |
Basis: Derived from the published RSS/Atom feed. Contact: [email protected]. Reviewed: 2026-07-24.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
Federal prosecutors have charged two men with using artificial intelligence to create nude videos and photos of female celebrities under a newly enacted law meant to halt the spread of deepfake pornography.Recommended Video Cornelius Shannon, 51, and Arturo Hernandez, 20, were both arrested Tuesday for generating sexually explicit AI content that drew millions of views online, according to criminal complaints. The men — who do not appear to be connected — are among the earliest defendants to face charges under the Take It Down Act, a law signed last year by President Donald Trump that adds stricter penalties for publishing AI-created deepfakes and “revenge porn.” The bill drew bipartisan support, as well as the public backing of first lady Melania Trump.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at Fortune.
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