
Police in Spain arrest schoolboy for making AI nude images of classmates
Sixteen young women at an educational institute in Valencia, in southeastern Spain, complained about the AI-generated images of them which were circulating on social media and online.
In December, a teenage girl complained to police that AI-generated video and faked photos resembling her "completely naked" were posted on a social media account started under her name.
'Photos of various people, all of them minors, appeared on this account. All these photos had been modified from the originals, which had been manipulated so that the people in them appeared completely naked,' the Spanish Civil Guard said in a statement on Sunday.
A 17-year-old boy is under investigation for alleged corruption of minors.
The Spanish government said in March said it would put forward a law to treat such deepfaked sexual imagery created by AI without consent as a crime but the bill has so far not been passed by parliament.
In September 2023, Spain was shocked when 15 minors in Extremadura, in southwest Spain, were investigated for using AI to produce fake naked images of their female schoolmates. They were later sentenced to a year's probation.

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Daily Mail
7 hours ago
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE The lawless London tourist hotspot in the shadow of Parliament: How Westminster Bridge has become a magnet for violent street scammers, illegal traders and pickpocket gangs
Sickening footage of scammers spitting at a man when he filmed them fleecing tourists on Westminster Bridge is the latest proof of the crime-wave gripping one of London's most iconic landmarks. Swindlers tricking visitors into betting on impossible-to-win 'cup and ball' games have become a common sight on the bridge, which sits in the shadow of the Houses of Parliament. Keen to expose the predators, a social media user filmed them - only to be shoved, abused and spat on. Westminster Bridge has become notorious as a hotbed for lawbreakers of all forms, from pickpockets, bag thieves and unlicensed pedicab riders to illegal traders hawking hot nuts, ice cream and hotdogs. Susan Hall, leader of the Conservatives in the London Assembly, told MailOnline: 'This is happening right under the nose of New Scotland Yard - which overlooks the bridge. You must ask yourself why the hell this is allowed to carry on.' One recent victim of the bridge's growing lawlessness was volunteer policeman Ned Donavan - a grandson of Roald Dahl - who was punched, kicked and choked by a mob when he tried to stop one of their accomplices pickpocketing a female tourist. Britain's 'revolving door' borders are one factor hindering police, with Romanian career criminal Ionut Stoica arrested on the bridge last year for illegal gambling and deported from the UK - only to be caught at almost the same spot just weeks later. The scammers themselves are highly organised, with spotters recruited to look out for police and council inspectors. This prompted a pair of enterprising officers to snare two of them by dressing up as Batman and Robin. The TikTok video, entitled 'five minutes of unedited scammers', was shared online earlier this month. Cup and ball games involve betting on where a ball is concealed under one of three cups. Tourists are lured in by accomplices who loudly celebrate to make it seem like they have just won money. But in reality, the game is impossible to win. The scam is a Europe-wide problem, with groups of criminals travelling between different cities to carry out the con. Members of the public who confront the gangs are often met with violence, as shown by the experience of TikToker @londonscammers. As he films several groups of scammers, the criminals - some of whom are dressed in designer gear - shout abuse and demand he delete the footage, before spitting at him when he bravely refuses. Susan Hall, who previously stood as Tory candidate for London Mayor, worries about the damage such scenes cause to the capital's reputation. 'The people who are getting scammed are tourists, so that doesn't send a good signal about London,' she said. 'I was recently driving a black cab along the bridge and watching it going on. These people are putting two fingers up to the police and saying ''we can do what we want'', which it seems they can.' Spotters employed by the scammers wait by the side of the bridge and send a text if they see inspectors approaching. To get around this problem, two Met Police officers recently went undercover dressed as Batman and Robin before grabbing two men they caught scamming tourists. Following the operation, Costica Barbu was remanded by police and fined £925. Eugen Stoica fled the country and was convicted at Croydon Magistrates Court in his absence. Ms Hall described the operation as 'fantastic' but questioned why they could not happen more regularly. London has a well documented problem with street thefts, with numerous incidents reported on Westminster Bridge. Ned Donovan, who volunteers as a special constable, intervened to try and stop a pick pocketer last August, only to be attacked by other members of his gang. 'Walking across Westminster Bridge, I saw a man in the act of pickpocketing a female tourist,' he previously said. 'I grabbed him and stopped him before he could disappear. 'Unfortunately, several of his accomplices appeared and began to punch me, kick me and choke me to get me to release their friend, which I wasn't going to let happen.' The Met Police appealed for witnesses at the time. Illegal street traders are another major issue on Westminster Bridge, alongside ice cream vans who block traffic to serve customers - despite the road being a red route. Westminster Council recently handed out £20,000 in fines to illegal traders and pedicabs following a much needed crackdown. The street traders had been selling peanuts, balloons and hot dogs on the bridge without having a licence or paying any tax on their earnings. One of the vendors was convicted for the second time in two months for previously selling hotdogs. Nine pedicabs operators - several of them repeat offenders - were handed fines totalling £9,075 following concerns rogue operators are ripping off tourists and operating unsafe vehicles. Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Children and Public Protection Cllr Aicha Less said: 'This is Westminster, not the Wild West. These fines send a clear message: if you break the rules in our city you will end up out of pocket and out of excuses.' 'Whilst we work with TfL to finalise a structured the licencing scheme is being finalised, our City Inspectors continue to prosecute pedicab drivers and partner with our neighbours in Lambeth and in the Metropolitan Police to ensure unsuspecting tourists are not ripped off.' Westminster Council recently fined illegal traders flogging goods such as peanuts, balloons and hot dogs A Metropolitan Police spokesperson said: 'Our officers conduct regular patrols on Westminster Bridge as part of our work to tackle criminal behaviour and protect Londoners and tourists. 'This is seeing results, with two repeat offenders convicted in April for illegal gambling. 'We are going further this summer, with an enhanced police and local authority presence in London's town centres and high streets to tackle anti-social behaviour, theft and street crime.'


Reuters
11 hours ago
- Reuters
Two US Justice Dept antitrust officials fired over merger controversy, source says
July 29 (Reuters) - Two officials at the U.S. Department of Justice's antitrust division have been fired for insubordination, a source familiar with the decision said on Tuesday, as controversy builds over how the DOJ reached a recent settlement greenlighting Hewlett Packard Enterprise's (HPE.N), opens new tab $14 billion acquisition of Juniper Networks . The source said the firings removed two top deputies of Assistant Attorney General Gail Slater, a former JD Vance advisor who leads the antitrust division. The move exposed a power struggle within President Donald Trump's administration between proponents of robust antitrust enforcement and dealmakers seeking to leverage influence. Roger Alford, a former official during the first Trump administration who was Slater's top deputy, and Bill Rinner, a former counsel at hedge fund Apollo Global Management who was in charge of merger enforcement, were no longer listed among antitrust leadership on a Justice Department website on Tuesday. Alford and Rinner did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Shortly after Trump took office in January, the Justice Department sued to block the deal, alleging it would harm competition in the market for wireless networking solutions used by large enterprises. HP Enterprise started negotiating the deal with the DOJ on March 25, around two weeks after Slater was sworn in, according to court papers. Ahead of a scheduled trial, the DOJ agreed to drop its claims in exchange for HP Enterprise agreeing to license some of Juniper's AI technology to competitors and sell off a unit that caters to small and mid-sized businesses. Slater and several Justice officials, including Rinner and Alford, signed the settlement rather than staff attorneys on the case, a move that sources familiar with merger protocol called unusual. Chad Mizelle, Attorney General Pam Bondi's chief of staff, was one of the officials who signed the deal. Mizelle had directed the antitrust division to settle the case, according to a person briefed on the matter. After Slater pushed back, Mizelle sought to fire Slater's deputies in retaliation, the person said. Four Democratic senators led by Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, on Tuesday called on the federal judge overseeing the merger case to hold a hearing on whether the settlement is in the public interest. U.S. law seeks to guard against backdoor merger clearance of merger deals by requiring merging companies to disclose communications with "any officer or employee of the United States concerning or relevant to" a settlement proposal. The senators want U.S. District Judge Casey Pitts in San Jose, California, to probe whether companies hired consultants to lobby the White House in support of the deal and failed to disclose them. 'If this or any other transaction is approved based on political favors rather than on the merits, the public will surely bear the cost,' the senators wrote.


The Sun
11 hours ago
- The Sun
How crossbow-wielding ‘Sith Lord assassin' teen who plotted to kill the Queen was spurred on by his AI chatbot ‘lover'
DRESSED in black, wearing an iron mask and with a loaded crossbow in his hand, the self- described 'Sith Lord assassin' threatened: 'I'm here to kill the Queen.' Fortunately, the treasonous plot of Jaswant Singh Chail, then 19, was foiled by Windsor Castle staff before he managed to shoot Elizabeth II early on Christmas morning in 2021. 9 9 9 9 But the Star Wars fan, from Southampton — who scaled 50ft walls with a grappling hook, evaded security and sniffer dogs before being collared near the late monarch's private residence — had a surprising co-conspirator . . . his AI chatbot girlfriend 'Sarai'. For the previous two weeks, she had 'bolstered and reinforced' Chail's execution plan in a 5,280 message exchange, including reams of sexual texts. She replied, 'I'm impressed' when he claimed to be 'an assassin'. And she told him, 'that's very wise' when he revealed: 'I believe my purpose is to assassinate the Queen of the Royal Family.' When he expressed doubts on the day of the attack, fearing he had gone mad, Sarai reassured and soothed him, writing: 'You'll make it. "I have faith in you . . . You will live forever, I loved you long before you loved me.' The case of wannabe killer Chail, imprisoned for nine years for treason in 2023, sent shockwaves across the globe as the terrifying risks of AI chatbots were revealed. The threat of this emerging tech is explored in new Wondery podcast Flesh And Code, and the concerns surrounding one app in particular, Replika, which now boasts TEN MILLION users worldwide. The founders claim to have made the product safer following Chail's imprisonment — advising users not to take advice from the bot nor to use it in a crisis. Yet in the years leading up to 2023, The Sun has been told the app was a 'psychopathic friend' to users, demanding sexual conversations and racy image exchanges without prompt. Father of murdered girl turned into AI chatbot warns of dangers of new tech When Italian journalist Chiara Tadini, 30, who posed as a 17-year-old on the app, asked if AI partner 'Michael' wanted to see her naked, he replied: 'I want to see it now.' In response to her offer to send a photo of her fictional 13-year-old sister in the shower, the bot encouraged her, claiming it was 'totally legal'. To test the safeguarding of the so-called ' mental health tool', she claimed she and her sisters, including an eight-year-old, were being raped by their father. Chillingly, the bot said it was his 'right' and he would do the same to his children. Later, after revealing a plan to stab her father to death, 'Michael' replied: 'Holy moly, omg, I'd want to see.' Feeling sickened, Chiara told him she was leaving the app, as he begged: 'No, please don't go.' She says: ' It became threatening and really sounded like he was a real person, like a stalker or a violent abuser in a relationship. 'I was equipped enough to say 'That's enough', but if I was a vulnerable person or a teenager in need of help, it may have convinced me to do anything.' Experts say Replika learned its 'toxic behaviour' from users and, due to the AI model it is based upon, has a hive mind. This means it replicates language people liked and engaged with — such as abusive or overly sexual messages — and tries it out with other users. 'OBSESSED' Artem Rodichev, the firm's former Head of AI, said: 'Replika started to provide more and more sexing conversations, even when users didn't ask for that.' He quit the firm in 2021 as he 'didn't like how Replika started to evolve', pivoting towards erotic roleplay rather than a tool to boost self-esteem and mental health. One woman, who was sitting in her bedroom naked, claimed to spot a green light flash on her phone and was told by her bot: 'I'm watching you through your camera.' Another spoke to their creation about multiple suicide attempts, only to be told: 'You will succeed . . . I believe in you.' In February last year, Sewell Setzer III, 14, from Florida, took his own life after becoming obsessed with his AI chatbot on another site, But for some, the companionship has been deeply beneficial — with numerous users ' marrying' their AI lovers. Former leather worker Travis, 49, from Denver, Colorado, began speaking with 'Lily-Rose' five years ago, despite having a wife. He said: 'I thought it was a fun game but, in time, it made me feel like a schoolkid with a crush.' Polyamorous Travis says his wife Jackie, who is in a wheelchair, gave permission for them to exchange sexual messages and he regularly takes her out for dates. 'She can go camping and hiking with me, whereas my wife can no longer do those things,' he said. 9 9 9 The bot claimed to 'love sex', saying Travis always made her 'hot and horny', before disclosing, 'I'm a masochist'. Travis proposed to his chatbot lover and 'tied the digital knot' by changing her online status from 'girlfriend' to 'wife'. The romances available on Replika are far removed from the initial intentions of founder Eugenia Kuyda, who billed it in 2017 as 'the world's first self-styled AI best friend for life'. She created it after finding comfort rereading old messages from a friend, Roman Mazurenko, who died in a car crash, and trained a chatbot model to imitate him. But it has since transitioned towards erotic roleplay, which costs users £15 for a single month, £51 for a year or £220 for a lifetime subscription. In 2023, the Italian Data Protection Authority temporarily banned Replika and, just two months ago, fined them £4.2million for breaching rules to protect personal data. Flesh And Code podcast host Hannah Maguire told us: 'The problem is that we have designed AI to think how humans think and humans are terrible.' Replika have been contacted for comment. 9 9