Tampa man accused of having AI-generated child porn - FOX 13 Tampa Bay
A 30-year-old Tampa man faces over 100 felony charges after authorities discovered a large collection of AI-generated child exploitation material
- Incident date
- Jun 2026
- Target
- unidentified minors
In June 2026, Tampa police arrested 30-year-old Brian Schaaf following a discovery of a massive collection of explicit child exploitation material. The investigation revealed that many of the images were believed to be generated using artificial intelligence.
What happened
The investigation began on May 29 after Tampa police received a cyber tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children regarding explicit images uploaded to an online cloud storage network. Detectives utilized investigative techniques to determine that the images were artificial intelligence-generated, discovering online search histories for terms including "AI face swap" and "NSFW AI face swap."
Officers initially arrested Schaaf on June 8 on two felony counts of creating child pornography. Following the execution of a search warrant at his residence, authorities uncovered a significantly larger collection of images. On June 25, members of the U.S. Marshals Task Force tracked down and arrested Schaaf again. He currently faces 100 felony counts of solicitation or possession of child pornography, as well as six felony counts of generating altered sexual depictions without consent. While authorities continue to review records, it remains unclear if any real victims have been identified in connection with the AI-generated imagery, and the total number of devices seized during the search warrant execution has not yet been confirmed.