Chandler man faces 10 felony counts in county’s first AI sexual child abuse image prosecution -…

A man in Chandler, Arizona, has been indicted on felony charges related to AI-generated child sexual abuse material. The case marks the first prosecution of its kind in the county under a newly enacted law.

What happened

William Powderly was indicted on ten felony counts of sexual exploitation of a minor. Chandler police began investigating Powderly after receiving a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Investigators found images of child sexual abuse material in his possession, including two in which AI had been used to superimpose a real child’s face onto sexually explicit images of another young female. The AI child abuse bill became law in September 2025 and equalized the penalties for possessing sex abuse images of real children and AI-generated images that are indistinguishable from real minors.