Honk News (Corinth, MS) – A school teacher in Mississippi has been taken into custody and is confronting several federal charges after reportedly utilizing an AI program to create child sex abuse material involving students.
Wilson Jones, 30, is accused of creating videos that involved eight former and current students from the Corinth school district, all aged between 14 and 16, as stated in an affidavit submitted by the FBI in Mississippi federal district court, which was acquired by PEOPLE.
“The videos depicted known Corinth students engaging in inappropriate behavior including kissing and exposing themselves,” states FBI Task Force Officer Bo Swindle in the affidavit in support of criminal complaint and arrest warrant.
According to the affidavit, none of the eight students had any knowledge of the videos.
The document outlines the instructions Jones purportedly provided to the AI while creating three of the videos.
“Two girls posing in each other’s arms, stopped to kiss. Kissing like they are truly in love,” are the commands Jones allegedly entered to generate the first video.
Jones reportedly directed the AI system to have the girls “disrobe” in the second video and subsequently “explore one another” in the third video.
In November, Chris Killough, the principal of Corinth Middle School, became aware of the videos after a “severe alert tagged as sexual” was triggered by activity on Jones’ school-district-issued computer, as stated in the affidavit.
Following the review of the material by school officials, Jones reportedly met with Killough and allegedly confessed to creating videos with AI, asserting that they were not sexual in nature, according to the affidavit.
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Jones reportedly informed Killough that he utilized social media images to create the videos, and during a subsequent investigation, it was allegedly discovered that he had “screenshots containing email user names and passwords of students no longer at the middle school campus” saved on his computer “without any legitimate purpose,” as stated in the affidavit.
Just a day following that meeting, on November 21, Jones stepped down from his role.
The timeline of events raises questions about the school’s delay in notifying the MDOE regarding the incident, as well as the subsequent month-long wait by the MDOE before informing local law enforcement.
The Corinth Police Department promptly informed the FBI about the situation, and shortly thereafter, the federal agency issued a subpoena to the school to obtain “all evidence, documentation, statements, videos, laptops and anything related to this incident.”
The Corinth School District announced: “The District conducted an investigation into the complaint, implemented necessary actions, and reported the situation, as mandated, to the Mississippi Department of Education Office of Educator Misconduct.”
They chose not to provide additional details regarding the incident, stating that they were unable to comment on a personnel issue.
Jones has not been officially charged with any crime; however, the affidavit outlines his purported offenses, which include knowingly producing and possessing child pornography, as well as creating child pornography that involves a recognizable minor.
On Thursday, a judge granted Jones’s release from custody following the posting of his $20,000 bail. However, court records indicate that he will be subject to house arrest and required to wear a monitoring device at all times.