Long Island man sentenced for sharing deepfake porn of underage women

LONG ISLAND - A Long Island man has been sentenced to six months in jail and 10 years of probation for sharing sexually explicit "deepfake" images of more than a dozen underage women on a pornographic website. 

Patrick Carey, 22, also posted personal identifying information of many of the women, who were in middle and high school, encouraging website users to harass and threaten them with sexual violence. 

Carey pleaded guilty in December 2022 to Promotion of a Sexual Performance by a Child, Aggravated Harassment in the Second Degree as a Hate Crime, Stalking in the Second Degree, and Endangering the Welfare of a Child.

RELATED: Controversy surrounds fake AI-generated Drake, The Weeknd song 'Heart On My Sleeve’

"Patrick Carey targeted these women, altering images he took from their social media accounts and the accounts of their family members and manipulating them using ‘deepfake’ technology to create pornography that he disseminated across the Internet," said Nassau County District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly. "These incredibly brave women pieced together his depraved conduct and brought it to the authorities. They were not afraid, and they were undeterred. Now, Carey will serve jail time and undergo rigorous monitoring for the next 10 years once he is released."

According to authorities, between January 2021 and September 2021, Nassau County Police Department detectives from the Eighth Squad were contacted by approximately 11 women who had discovered images of themselves on a pornographic website. Many of the women indicated that the images, taken when they were in high school and middle school, were re-posted on the website from their own social media platforms and altered to suggest the women were engaging in sexual conduct.

RELATED: NYC cybersecurity: How are we protected? A look inside an operations center

The images had been altered in what is otherwise known as a "deepfake" – convincingly superimposing the victim’s faces on other separate images of women engaging in sexual conduct. The posted images were also accompanied by personal identifying information, including full names, addresses and telephone numbers.

Each of the women had attended MacArthur High School in Levittown and believed that the defendant was the individual who was altering and posting their images and contact information. Some reported to police that they had received notifications from social media that Carey had "screenshotted" some of the images that appeared altered on the website from their social media accounts.

The investigation determined that most of the posts containing images of the victims came from three distinct usernames controlled by Carey. Through these accounts, Carey actively posted the images of the victims from approximately August 2019 until approximately September 2021, mere hours before his arrest, including posting the "deepfaked" images of teenagers engaging in sexual conduct with their personal information. Carey also encouraged other users to harass the victims, including sending them lurid images and videos and sexual threats.

RELATED: Biden to meet with experts about AI 'risks and opportunities'

After executing nearly two dozen search warrants on Carey’s cell phone, tablets, and other social media and web accounts, the investigation revealed Carey was in possession of several images of the victims and had shared them to social media and on the pornographic website.

Carey was arrested in September 2021. 

New York currently doesn't have any criminal statutes addressing "deepfaked" or digitally manipulated images of a sexually explicit nature, leaving a significant loophole that can be exploited by child pornographers.