sugar_in_your_tea , 1 month ago

Let's do a thought experiment, and I'd look to to tell me at what point a victim was introduced:

1. I legally acquire pictures of a child, fully clothed and everything
2. I draw a picture based on those legal pictures, but the subject is nude or doing sexually explicit things
3. I keep the picture for my own personal use and don't distribute it

Or with AI:

1. I legally acquire pictures of children, fully clothed and everything
2. I legally acquire pictures of nude adults, some doing sexually explicit things
3. I train an AI on a mix of 1&2
4. I generate images of nude children, some of them doing sexually explicit things
5. I keep the pictures for my own personal use and don't distribute any of them
6. I distribute my model, using the right to distribute from the legal acquisition of those images

At what point did my actions victimize someone?

If I distributed those images and those images resemble a real person, then that real person is potentially a victim.

I will say someone who does this creepy and I don't want them anywhere near children (especially mine, and yes, I have kids), but I don't think it should be illegal, provided the source material is legal. But as soon as I distribute it, there absolutely could be a victim. Being creepy shouldn't be a crime.