Japanese police make first arrest for deepfake of celebrities

ISTANBUL

Japanese police arrested a man for allegedly producing explicit images of female celebrities with generative artificial intelligence (AI), Jiji Press reported Thursday.

It is the first case of an arrest for sexual deepfake images of celebrities created with AI in Japan.

Hiroya Yokoi, 31, from the northeastern city of Akita, admitted to creating the images for financial gain to cover living expenses and repay a student loan.

Authorities believe Yokoi has produced nearly 20,000 images of 262 women, including actors, television personalities and idols, and earned 1.2 million yen ($8,000) by selling them between last October and September.

He was arrested on suspicion of displaying fake images of three actors online in three instances from Jan. 7 to June 2.

Earlier, police said they arrested three men and one woman in April for allegedly selling obscene images of women produced by AI, marking the first arrests in Japan for the crime.