Central Coast man charged with 13 offences after allegedly using AI to blackmail women with manipulated intimate images

A Central Coast man is facing 13 charges after allegedly using AI to create fake explicit images and blackmail three women online.

A 31-year-old Central Coast man has been charged over an alleged online sextortion plot involving threats to share AI-manipulated intimate images of three women.

Detectives from the Brisbane Water Police District launched an investigation earlier this month after a referral from Victoria Police.

Police allege the man targeted three women in their 20s, using artificial intelligence to alter intimate images before threatening to publicly distribute them unless the women sent further explicit content.

On Wednesday morning, police executed a search warrant at a home in Ettalong Beach, where they allegedly seized several electronic devices for forensic examination.

The man was arrested at the scene and taken to Gosford Police Station, where he was charged with 13 offences, including, including three counts each of demanding with menaces intending to gain or cause loss, threatening to distribute intimate images without consent and using a carriage service to send sexual material recklessly.

As well as, using a carriage service to menace, harass or offend and one count of inciting another person to perform a sexual act without consent.

He was granted conditional bail and is due to appear before Gosford Local Court on June 4.

Originally published as Central Coast man charged with 13 offences after allegedly using AI to blackmail women with manipulated intimate images