First Take It Down Act Conviction: Guy Kept Making AI Nudes Even After Arrest

An Ohio man just became the first person convicted under the Take It Down Act, and the details are as grim as you’d expect. James Strahler II, 37, pleaded guilty to creating and distributing both real and AI-generated explicit images of at least 10 victims without their consent.

The Justice Department laid it out: Strahler used AI tools to generate fake sexualized images of six women he knew personally. In one particularly vile instance, he created an image depicting a victim engaged in sex with her father, then sent it to her mother and co-workers. He also used AI to place the faces of minor boys—including young relatives of his victims—onto adult bodies in explicit and incestuous scenes.

What really gets me is the scale. Cops found that Strahler had installed over 24 AI platforms and more than 100 AI web-based models on his phone. He used them to generate hundreds, if not thousands, of non-consensual intimate images (NCII) depicting both women and children.

Here’s the part that stood out to me: investigators discovered Strahler was still creating AI-generated explicit images even after his arrest. That tells you something about how normalized this behavior has become for some people—and how ineffective a simple arrest is without serious monitoring.

The Take It Down Act, signed into law last year, criminalizes the creation and distribution of non-consensual intimate imagery, including AI-generated content. This case is its first real test, and while a conviction is good, the fact that the offender kept going after being arrested raises questions about enforcement and deterrence.

Strahler now faces up to 10 years in prison. Sentencing is pending. I hope the judge takes the post-arrest behavior into account—this wasn’t a one-time lapse in judgment, it was a sustained campaign of harassment enabled by easily accessible AI tools.

This case is a stark reminder that the same technology powering creative tools and productivity apps is also being weaponized for abuse. The legal system is catching up, but cases like this show we’re still playing defense.