1 00:00:00,240 --> 00:00:07,200 Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News. 2 00:00:08,039 --> 00:00:10,600 Speaker 2: Hey it's David Gurra. We've brought you stories about how 3 00:00:10,720 --> 00:00:14,240 Speaker 2: artificial intelligence is changing our lives and our economy, from 4 00:00:14,280 --> 00:00:17,000 Speaker 2: how it could reshape work to how it could supercharge 5 00:00:17,000 --> 00:00:20,680 Speaker 2: demands for energy. Today we bring you a series about 6 00:00:20,680 --> 00:00:24,520 Speaker 2: the human cost of unregulated AI and how lawmakers and 7 00:00:24,640 --> 00:00:28,720 Speaker 2: law enforcement are struggling to keep up. Bloomberg reporters Margie 8 00:00:28,800 --> 00:00:31,760 Speaker 2: Murphy and Olivia Carville have spent the last year digging 9 00:00:31,840 --> 00:00:34,839 Speaker 2: into the stories of dozens of young women and teens 10 00:00:34,880 --> 00:00:38,360 Speaker 2: in a New York suburb who found AI manipulated photos 11 00:00:38,360 --> 00:00:41,720 Speaker 2: of themselves on a porn website. They had never consented 12 00:00:41,760 --> 00:00:44,599 Speaker 2: to the creation of these images. When they're told there 13 00:00:44,640 --> 00:00:47,440 Speaker 2: isn't much the police or anyone else can do, they 14 00:00:47,479 --> 00:00:51,280 Speaker 2: decide to fight back and join a global battle against 15 00:00:51,280 --> 00:00:54,640 Speaker 2: deep fakes. Here's the first episode of Marky and Olivia's 16 00:00:54,680 --> 00:00:55,600 Speaker 2: six part series. 17 00:00:56,880 --> 00:01:02,840 Speaker 3: The series explores sexualized imagery, evolving miners, and violence. Please 18 00:01:02,880 --> 00:01:16,319 Speaker 3: take Kia when listening, Can we stop from the beginning? 19 00:01:17,000 --> 00:01:23,720 Speaker 3: How did this will stop for you? So I can 20 00:01:24,080 --> 00:01:25,160 Speaker 3: go back into it? 21 00:01:25,280 --> 00:01:31,839 Speaker 4: I remember somehow all these pictures from my Instagram by Visco, 22 00:01:32,240 --> 00:01:37,800 Speaker 4: We're all on this website. There was one picture of 23 00:01:38,640 --> 00:01:43,240 Speaker 4: me in a bathing suit. Well, it was me in 24 00:01:43,280 --> 00:01:49,280 Speaker 4: a bathing suit in one of my friend's backyards and 25 00:01:50,280 --> 00:01:57,560 Speaker 4: I didn't have a bathing suit on anymore. And it 26 00:01:57,640 --> 00:02:03,120 Speaker 4: was just me naked, well not me, but me with 27 00:02:03,280 --> 00:02:11,040 Speaker 4: someone else's body parts on my body parts. It was 28 00:02:11,600 --> 00:02:20,120 Speaker 4: just boobs and body parts completely nude that looked so 29 00:02:20,320 --> 00:02:25,600 Speaker 4: much like my own body. There were so many different 30 00:02:25,639 --> 00:02:34,440 Speaker 4: pictures from my social media on essentially a porn website. 31 00:02:35,080 --> 00:02:38,280 Speaker 4: I was just trying to figure out exactly, like where 32 00:02:38,360 --> 00:02:41,120 Speaker 4: is this coming from? Like how are they finding my stuff? 33 00:02:42,200 --> 00:02:45,320 Speaker 4: I didn't let people follow me that I didn't know, 34 00:02:45,560 --> 00:02:49,320 Speaker 4: so it was always in the back of my head like, oh, 35 00:02:49,360 --> 00:02:52,160 Speaker 4: it's someone that I know, But how do you find 36 00:02:52,200 --> 00:02:55,000 Speaker 4: out who that someone is when you know so many 37 00:02:55,040 --> 00:03:00,400 Speaker 4: people from school, soccer, all these things. 38 00:03:03,560 --> 00:03:06,360 Speaker 3: Did you ever have any suspicions as to who it 39 00:03:06,560 --> 00:03:07,120 Speaker 3: was back then? 40 00:03:08,760 --> 00:03:13,880 Speaker 4: No, not at all. It was always like, why is 41 00:03:13,919 --> 00:03:15,280 Speaker 4: this happening? Who is this? 42 00:03:35,480 --> 00:03:38,240 Speaker 3: Kayla was twenty years old and living at home with 43 00:03:38,320 --> 00:03:41,920 Speaker 3: her parents in a town that was once the picture 44 00:03:42,280 --> 00:03:47,080 Speaker 3: of the American dream, a Long Island suburb called Leavittown. 45 00:03:48,640 --> 00:03:52,680 Speaker 3: We're driving around Leavittown. A lot of white picket fences, 46 00:03:52,840 --> 00:03:57,480 Speaker 3: a lot of American flags. It has the feel of 47 00:03:57,560 --> 00:03:58,640 Speaker 3: going back in time. 48 00:04:00,160 --> 00:04:04,240 Speaker 5: Levittown one of the most remarkable housing developments ever conceived. 49 00:04:04,480 --> 00:04:07,120 Speaker 3: It's the kind of America that makes you think of 50 00:04:07,160 --> 00:04:13,240 Speaker 3: the nineteen fifties cookie cutter single family houses, like someone 51 00:04:13,320 --> 00:04:17,720 Speaker 3: hit control C on the ideal suburban house and then 52 00:04:17,800 --> 00:04:22,280 Speaker 3: pasted it over and over on street after street. 53 00:04:23,279 --> 00:04:25,640 Speaker 5: The idea that came to a man named Bill Levitt 54 00:04:25,680 --> 00:04:28,600 Speaker 5: was this, why not apply to the building of houses 55 00:04:28,640 --> 00:04:31,159 Speaker 5: the same principles that have brought other American industries to 56 00:04:31,160 --> 00:04:33,360 Speaker 5: their own exceled peaks of efficiency and service. 57 00:04:33,720 --> 00:04:37,600 Speaker 3: Leavettown was built for veterans returning from World War II 58 00:04:38,400 --> 00:04:43,799 Speaker 3: as the picture of white suburbia, perfect houses, manicured. 59 00:04:43,279 --> 00:04:45,040 Speaker 2: Lawns started here and there. 60 00:04:45,080 --> 00:04:48,279 Speaker 5: Throughout the huge area are shopping centers where every type 61 00:04:48,279 --> 00:04:52,680 Speaker 5: of product or service is readily available Hue Stars five 62 00:04:52,760 --> 00:04:54,559 Speaker 5: and Dimes Department Store. 63 00:04:59,200 --> 00:05:04,280 Speaker 3: Today we often talk about the future as digital algorithms 64 00:05:04,360 --> 00:05:10,680 Speaker 3: and codes, as the architecture of our lives, But back then, 65 00:05:11,160 --> 00:05:16,560 Speaker 3: Levettown was the imagined future. It just feels like quite 66 00:05:17,360 --> 00:05:22,120 Speaker 3: suburban and safe. You know, it feels like the kind 67 00:05:22,120 --> 00:05:26,920 Speaker 3: of place that nothing really happens around here, and yet 68 00:05:27,160 --> 00:05:31,839 Speaker 3: underneath the facade of perfect order, it's here I found 69 00:05:31,839 --> 00:05:35,839 Speaker 3: a story unfolding of a group of women faced with 70 00:05:35,960 --> 00:05:41,000 Speaker 3: a new reality none of them wanted, a technological reality 71 00:05:41,720 --> 00:05:48,000 Speaker 3: spinning out of control. It's like, this is not the 72 00:05:48,040 --> 00:05:51,640 Speaker 3: setting for a horror movie, and that's exactly what played out. 73 00:05:52,839 --> 00:05:56,719 Speaker 3: But this isn't your average horror story, the kind where 74 00:05:56,760 --> 00:06:00,120 Speaker 3: a group of teens are hunted down until there's only 75 00:06:00,200 --> 00:06:05,120 Speaker 3: one left standing. In this story, they flip the script, 76 00:06:05,600 --> 00:06:12,240 Speaker 3: band together and fight back alongside some unexpected global allies, 77 00:06:13,120 --> 00:06:18,720 Speaker 3: forcing law enforcement and tech companies to sit up and 78 00:06:18,839 --> 00:06:34,480 Speaker 3: take notice. From iHeart Podcasts, Bloomberg, and Kaleidoscope. This is Levettown. 79 00:06:34,880 --> 00:06:48,839 Speaker 3: I'm Olivia Carvill. Over the summer, our producer Julia Nutter, 80 00:06:48,920 --> 00:06:51,800 Speaker 3: and I made the drive out to Long Island to 81 00:06:51,839 --> 00:06:54,080 Speaker 3: meet Kayla at her family home. 82 00:06:57,320 --> 00:06:58,159 Speaker 4: I can hear music. 83 00:07:02,839 --> 00:07:05,160 Speaker 1: How are you so nice to see It's nice to 84 00:07:05,200 --> 00:07:05,720 Speaker 1: see you too. 85 00:07:05,760 --> 00:07:07,080 Speaker 4: How are you feeling sound good? 86 00:07:08,040 --> 00:07:09,400 Speaker 1: Let me just do a quick levels check. 87 00:07:09,560 --> 00:07:11,120 Speaker 4: Oh do you want me to put the bird in 88 00:07:11,160 --> 00:07:11,760 Speaker 4: another room? 89 00:07:12,040 --> 00:07:14,080 Speaker 1: I don't even hear the bird. Oh my god, the bird. 90 00:07:15,080 --> 00:07:19,080 Speaker 3: Kayla is like a firecracker. She's small but loud, with 91 00:07:19,240 --> 00:07:22,760 Speaker 3: brightly colored hair. Every time I've seen her, her hair 92 00:07:22,840 --> 00:07:27,000 Speaker 3: is a different color. She's covered in tattoos and piercings. 93 00:07:27,400 --> 00:07:29,240 Speaker 1: I was like, Oh, yeah, what kind of bird is that? 94 00:07:29,360 --> 00:07:32,040 Speaker 4: A parrokeet so he likes to talk to himself a lot. 95 00:07:36,280 --> 00:07:39,240 Speaker 3: Do you feel comfortable showing us where you were when 96 00:07:39,280 --> 00:07:43,600 Speaker 3: you discovered the website? When you were showing it, yeah, 97 00:07:43,640 --> 00:07:47,360 Speaker 3: it's a little messy. Kayla's twenty four now. When we 98 00:07:47,440 --> 00:07:50,200 Speaker 3: visited her, she was living in the same house she 99 00:07:50,280 --> 00:07:50,800 Speaker 3: grew up in. 100 00:07:51,560 --> 00:07:52,440 Speaker 1: Well, I see all. 101 00:07:52,400 --> 00:07:56,240 Speaker 4: Your plants and it's great, as you could tell. I 102 00:07:56,320 --> 00:07:57,120 Speaker 4: love my books. 103 00:07:57,680 --> 00:08:01,240 Speaker 3: In high school, Kayla was an elite athlete and a 104 00:08:01,280 --> 00:08:03,760 Speaker 3: girl who moved easily between friend groups. 105 00:08:04,240 --> 00:08:06,960 Speaker 4: People make it seem like there's either the popular group 106 00:08:07,160 --> 00:08:11,280 Speaker 4: or you know, so called nerds. I would like to 107 00:08:11,320 --> 00:08:13,720 Speaker 4: say I was in the middle of it because I 108 00:08:13,800 --> 00:08:15,480 Speaker 4: hung out with a lot of the sports people who 109 00:08:15,560 --> 00:08:19,000 Speaker 4: were considered popular. But I had my friends who we 110 00:08:19,040 --> 00:08:22,920 Speaker 4: would just sit around and play video games, hang out, 111 00:08:23,040 --> 00:08:27,720 Speaker 4: do funny things, and make videos of us doing stupid 112 00:08:27,760 --> 00:08:36,280 Speaker 4: little things. I say this to my friends actually all 113 00:08:36,320 --> 00:08:39,320 Speaker 4: the time. I may not dress like it, but my 114 00:08:39,440 --> 00:08:42,680 Speaker 4: inner person is kind of emo. I listen to a 115 00:08:42,720 --> 00:08:43,960 Speaker 4: lot of dark music. 116 00:08:44,040 --> 00:08:44,319 Speaker 6: Now. 117 00:08:44,520 --> 00:08:48,000 Speaker 4: I have the tattoos all over, I piercings all over, 118 00:08:49,640 --> 00:08:52,120 Speaker 4: and I truly just like It's not like I like 119 00:08:52,200 --> 00:08:55,959 Speaker 4: the color black. I just like I changed a lot. 120 00:08:56,920 --> 00:08:59,160 Speaker 4: I have a really big book tattoo on my leg. 121 00:08:59,640 --> 00:09:04,520 Speaker 4: I have a big wrap around plants because my whole 122 00:09:04,600 --> 00:09:07,800 Speaker 4: leg is going to be things I love, and plants 123 00:09:07,840 --> 00:09:11,760 Speaker 4: is another thing for me. This one, it's one of 124 00:09:11,760 --> 00:09:16,880 Speaker 4: my favorites. It's tell Me About Tomorrow. Tell Me About 125 00:09:16,920 --> 00:09:19,760 Speaker 4: Tomorrow is one of my favorite songs because whenever I'm 126 00:09:19,760 --> 00:09:22,760 Speaker 4: in a depressive stea or just not doing good mentally, 127 00:09:23,440 --> 00:09:26,080 Speaker 4: I play that song and it tells you to tell 128 00:09:26,080 --> 00:09:28,120 Speaker 4: me about tomorrow, tell me about the next day that's 129 00:09:28,120 --> 00:09:30,720 Speaker 4: going to go on in your life. When I was 130 00:09:30,800 --> 00:09:36,320 Speaker 4: going through this situation, I was not mentally doing good 131 00:09:36,360 --> 00:09:40,760 Speaker 4: at all, and it told me you will have tomorrow, 132 00:09:41,040 --> 00:09:42,440 Speaker 4: and you can't have tomorrow. 133 00:09:46,080 --> 00:09:50,439 Speaker 3: It sounds like a lot of the tattoos are important 134 00:09:50,440 --> 00:09:54,360 Speaker 3: to you because they represent you moving forward or healing 135 00:09:54,600 --> 00:09:58,040 Speaker 3: or getting over this situation. As you described it, do 136 00:09:58,080 --> 00:10:00,560 Speaker 3: you feel comfortable getting into now? 137 00:10:00,920 --> 00:10:08,600 Speaker 4: Yes. I remember being in my bed, just laying down. 138 00:10:08,600 --> 00:10:09,520 Speaker 4: It was late at night. 139 00:10:10,400 --> 00:10:13,320 Speaker 3: This was in March twenty twenty, at the onset of 140 00:10:13,360 --> 00:10:17,560 Speaker 3: the COVID pandemic. She'd recently graduated from high school and 141 00:10:17,679 --> 00:10:19,439 Speaker 3: was stuck at home with her appearance. 142 00:10:20,000 --> 00:10:24,160 Speaker 4: I was in that corner. My bed was up against 143 00:10:24,160 --> 00:10:28,800 Speaker 4: the wall. I was just laying in the bed. I'm 144 00:10:28,840 --> 00:10:31,720 Speaker 4: pretty sure I was on my phone, just scrolling through 145 00:10:31,760 --> 00:10:33,720 Speaker 4: Instagram or something, or on Snapchat. 146 00:10:34,720 --> 00:10:37,600 Speaker 3: She heard her dad walking up the stairs from the 147 00:10:37,640 --> 00:10:38,280 Speaker 3: living room, so. 148 00:10:38,320 --> 00:10:39,959 Speaker 4: As I can always hear when someone comes up the 149 00:10:40,000 --> 00:10:41,920 Speaker 4: stairs and he knocks, he always knocks on the door. 150 00:10:41,960 --> 00:10:47,000 Speaker 4: So he knocked and just like walked right in. I 151 00:10:47,120 --> 00:10:50,600 Speaker 4: thought automatically like I was in trouble or something. But 152 00:10:50,679 --> 00:10:53,880 Speaker 4: then I could just like tell like he was just confused, 153 00:10:54,679 --> 00:10:57,719 Speaker 4: and he was like a little hesitant to like come 154 00:10:57,800 --> 00:11:01,320 Speaker 4: up to me. I could tell, and. 155 00:11:01,200 --> 00:11:02,800 Speaker 1: He was just like, what is this? 156 00:11:05,240 --> 00:11:07,240 Speaker 3: What is this? What was he showing you? 157 00:11:08,440 --> 00:11:11,160 Speaker 4: I think it was the website. 158 00:11:11,600 --> 00:11:15,040 Speaker 3: It was the faked picture of her naked and next 159 00:11:15,040 --> 00:11:19,079 Speaker 3: to it a pole asking the site's users to rank 160 00:11:19,240 --> 00:11:23,720 Speaker 3: what they wanted to do to her sexually. This next 161 00:11:23,760 --> 00:11:26,959 Speaker 3: part is graphic and it might be difficult to hear. 162 00:11:28,720 --> 00:11:37,200 Speaker 4: It was. I always had trouble saying these pots. 163 00:11:38,200 --> 00:11:38,680 Speaker 7: It was. 164 00:11:40,360 --> 00:11:46,920 Speaker 4: Drink her purse, milk her have her drink my purse, 165 00:11:47,480 --> 00:11:50,480 Speaker 4: and there was something else, and I can't entirely remember 166 00:11:50,520 --> 00:11:51,360 Speaker 4: what the other one was. 167 00:11:52,360 --> 00:11:54,760 Speaker 3: So they were ranking what they wanted to do to 168 00:11:54,800 --> 00:12:01,720 Speaker 3: you sexually. Yes, yeah, she kept scroll and it got worse. 169 00:12:02,440 --> 00:12:05,000 Speaker 4: We would see what they posted, like their nude pictures 170 00:12:05,040 --> 00:12:09,920 Speaker 4: and them jerking off and coming on our pictures, even 171 00:12:09,960 --> 00:12:15,360 Speaker 4: like pictures of our pictures with their dicks there and 172 00:12:15,960 --> 00:12:20,280 Speaker 4: the ejaculation there, and then there was like some like 173 00:12:22,320 --> 00:12:35,120 Speaker 4: writings of like raper. My dad was very confused. He 174 00:12:35,480 --> 00:12:38,800 Speaker 4: asked me what this was and how did it get 175 00:12:38,880 --> 00:12:42,720 Speaker 4: up there, and I did not know because I've never 176 00:12:42,760 --> 00:12:52,000 Speaker 4: seen it before, which I obviously told him. So that's 177 00:12:52,000 --> 00:13:00,920 Speaker 4: how we found out about the website. 178 00:13:05,240 --> 00:13:08,480 Speaker 3: Kayla says her dad is a big guy, big personality 179 00:13:08,640 --> 00:13:13,160 Speaker 3: like her loud laugh. Back then, he was a police officer, 180 00:13:13,679 --> 00:13:17,160 Speaker 3: a beat cop really for the Nassau County Police Department. 181 00:13:17,920 --> 00:13:20,160 Speaker 3: He didn't want to talk to us for this podcast, 182 00:13:20,800 --> 00:13:25,400 Speaker 3: but he's really protective of his kids, which means he 183 00:13:25,559 --> 00:13:30,319 Speaker 3: regularly googles their names, searching the Internet for anything related 184 00:13:30,360 --> 00:13:30,720 Speaker 3: to them. 185 00:13:31,400 --> 00:13:36,880 Speaker 4: For mere specifically, I was playing soccer and competitively, so 186 00:13:38,640 --> 00:13:41,560 Speaker 4: when I was, you know, going to college and playing soccer. 187 00:13:41,640 --> 00:13:45,400 Speaker 4: Then he just got nervous when they search things. He 188 00:13:45,440 --> 00:13:50,520 Speaker 4: doesn't want dumb to see things are wrong or you know, like. 189 00:13:51,559 --> 00:13:55,319 Speaker 3: Exactly what we found When he shows you the phone, 190 00:13:55,440 --> 00:13:58,640 Speaker 3: what is the photograph on the phone that you're looking 191 00:13:58,640 --> 00:14:01,840 Speaker 3: at the specific that you first see. 192 00:14:02,040 --> 00:14:05,440 Speaker 4: I'm almost passitive. It was the one with the bikini 193 00:14:05,480 --> 00:14:09,560 Speaker 4: taken off my body and it was just me naked, 194 00:14:09,960 --> 00:14:14,200 Speaker 4: well not me, but me with someone else's body parts 195 00:14:14,240 --> 00:14:22,280 Speaker 4: on my body parts that looked exactly like my own. 196 00:14:22,960 --> 00:14:26,880 Speaker 3: Was there ever a moment, even a split seeking moment, 197 00:14:27,000 --> 00:14:28,800 Speaker 3: that you thought it was you naked? 198 00:14:29,040 --> 00:14:32,240 Speaker 4: Yes, I definitely, Like at first, like I was like, 199 00:14:32,280 --> 00:14:34,160 Speaker 4: oh my god, that's me, Like how did they get that? 200 00:14:34,240 --> 00:14:38,800 Speaker 4: But then I was like, no, that's in my friend's backyard. 201 00:14:39,000 --> 00:14:42,280 Speaker 4: Like I was obviously wearing a bikini. And I remember 202 00:14:42,320 --> 00:14:45,280 Speaker 4: the bikini. It was a blue one and it was 203 00:14:45,400 --> 00:14:48,080 Speaker 4: mesh a little bit. So that's why I would think 204 00:14:48,080 --> 00:14:52,160 Speaker 4: it was so easy for them to completely alter the picture. 205 00:14:53,000 --> 00:14:58,120 Speaker 4: But I just like Instantly, I was like, whoa, how 206 00:14:58,880 --> 00:15:02,640 Speaker 4: how did they get that picture of me? Like I 207 00:15:02,720 --> 00:15:06,960 Speaker 4: never took a picture like that. It was frightening how 208 00:15:07,440 --> 00:15:09,000 Speaker 4: exact it looked. 209 00:15:10,440 --> 00:15:13,680 Speaker 3: The website it was on was called come On printed 210 00:15:13,760 --> 00:15:18,000 Speaker 3: picks dot Com, and it encouraged its members to do 211 00:15:18,240 --> 00:15:23,400 Speaker 3: exactly what that title implies, to print out photos of 212 00:15:23,480 --> 00:15:27,960 Speaker 3: girls and young women and masturbate to them, and then 213 00:15:28,560 --> 00:15:32,320 Speaker 3: to post a photo of the user's erection or ejaculation 214 00:15:33,040 --> 00:15:36,760 Speaker 3: on top of that image. This is a practice they 215 00:15:36,840 --> 00:15:38,160 Speaker 3: called tributing. 216 00:15:39,800 --> 00:15:42,880 Speaker 4: To have to see my dad find all that and 217 00:15:43,000 --> 00:15:49,000 Speaker 4: like I don't know, like just not understanding what's going on. 218 00:15:49,080 --> 00:15:51,000 Speaker 4: I didn't even know anything what's going on. And then 219 00:15:51,000 --> 00:15:53,160 Speaker 4: my dad just coming in and seeing all that, It's 220 00:15:53,240 --> 00:15:57,240 Speaker 4: like nobody wants to see that, but like to have 221 00:15:57,320 --> 00:16:02,560 Speaker 4: your dad see that, that's like not even uncomfortable, like 222 00:16:02,600 --> 00:16:07,040 Speaker 4: that's not even the word for it, but just like unimaginable. 223 00:16:12,240 --> 00:16:14,880 Speaker 3: I wish I could tell you that this website was 224 00:16:14,960 --> 00:16:18,280 Speaker 3: tucked away in the dark Web where users needed to 225 00:16:18,400 --> 00:16:22,360 Speaker 3: download a special browser or slink through some other secret 226 00:16:22,440 --> 00:16:26,880 Speaker 3: cyber door. But it wasn't. It was just out in 227 00:16:26,960 --> 00:16:32,720 Speaker 3: the open. Kayla was out in the open too. Postings 228 00:16:32,720 --> 00:16:36,080 Speaker 3: on the site included her real name, which is how 229 00:16:36,120 --> 00:16:40,120 Speaker 3: her dad found it. Sometimes the images posted to the 230 00:16:40,120 --> 00:16:45,800 Speaker 3: website were actual unaltered photos revenge porn type stuff, but 231 00:16:45,960 --> 00:16:50,360 Speaker 3: often the original photos were taken from innocent social media 232 00:16:50,440 --> 00:16:55,480 Speaker 3: posts like Kayla's, and then the site's users turned those 233 00:16:55,520 --> 00:17:04,680 Speaker 3: images into non consensual pornography, often with underage subjects. This 234 00:17:04,800 --> 00:17:08,359 Speaker 3: type of photo manipulation was new to Kayla, but it 235 00:17:08,440 --> 00:17:11,720 Speaker 3: wasn't new to me. I've been starting to see more 236 00:17:11,720 --> 00:17:15,200 Speaker 3: of it over the past few years. I've been reporting 237 00:17:15,240 --> 00:17:19,240 Speaker 3: on big tech and social media platforms what they're doing 238 00:17:19,480 --> 00:17:23,120 Speaker 3: or not doing to prevent harm to kids, what guardrails 239 00:17:23,160 --> 00:17:26,480 Speaker 3: they're putting up to stop exactly this kind of thing 240 00:17:26,600 --> 00:17:30,960 Speaker 3: from happening, and images like these were starting to multiply 241 00:17:31,200 --> 00:17:37,320 Speaker 3: with shocking speed alongside the rise of artificial intelligence. I 242 00:17:37,440 --> 00:17:40,600 Speaker 3: kept hearing more and more about the dark side of 243 00:17:40,640 --> 00:17:46,560 Speaker 3: this new technology, about deep fakes, altered videos online known 244 00:17:46,600 --> 00:17:47,520 Speaker 3: as deep. 245 00:17:47,240 --> 00:17:49,120 Speaker 1: Fakes, the rise of deep fakes. 246 00:17:48,800 --> 00:17:51,119 Speaker 2: Computer generated videos known as deep fakes. 247 00:17:51,200 --> 00:17:54,400 Speaker 6: Deep fake videos make people appear to say things they 248 00:17:54,480 --> 00:17:56,240 Speaker 6: never did or never would. 249 00:17:56,359 --> 00:17:58,640 Speaker 5: But it's getting harder and harder to trust our eyes. 250 00:17:58,440 --> 00:18:02,320 Speaker 3: And errors when I first heard about the leavett Town case. 251 00:18:02,800 --> 00:18:04,919 Speaker 3: I knew the reporting was going to take me to 252 00:18:04,960 --> 00:18:10,040 Speaker 3: some uncomfortable but important places, from the rise of generative 253 00:18:10,040 --> 00:18:14,439 Speaker 3: AI to the explosion of deep fakes to child sexual 254 00:18:14,480 --> 00:18:18,840 Speaker 3: abuse material online. I also knew that it was going 255 00:18:18,880 --> 00:18:22,000 Speaker 3: to be really hard to find the victims and dive 256 00:18:22,040 --> 00:18:25,879 Speaker 3: into this website on my own, so I turned to 257 00:18:25,960 --> 00:18:30,399 Speaker 3: my colleague for help, Margie Murphy. She's a technology reporter 258 00:18:30,440 --> 00:18:31,080 Speaker 3: at Bloomberg. 259 00:18:32,520 --> 00:18:34,840 Speaker 1: At the time, I remember I was reporting on this 260 00:18:35,000 --> 00:18:37,960 Speaker 1: new generative AI tool that people were using to create 261 00:18:38,040 --> 00:18:42,120 Speaker 1: child sexual abuse material. I typically write about people who 262 00:18:42,200 --> 00:18:46,080 Speaker 1: hide on the fringes of the Internet, like teenage hackers 263 00:18:46,280 --> 00:18:50,800 Speaker 1: extorting global businesses, or cyber criminals using AI to scam people. 264 00:18:51,640 --> 00:18:54,120 Speaker 1: Not that long ago, when I started on this beat, 265 00:18:54,520 --> 00:18:57,680 Speaker 1: deepfects weren't that easy to make and kind of always 266 00:18:57,680 --> 00:18:59,920 Speaker 1: had to tell if you looked at them long and 267 00:19:00,400 --> 00:19:03,760 Speaker 1: you would notice something was off, yet they caught your attention. 268 00:19:04,040 --> 00:19:06,360 Speaker 6: With AI, there has been so much. 269 00:19:06,119 --> 00:19:09,280 Speaker 1: Innovation, but in the last few years there have been 270 00:19:09,400 --> 00:19:11,240 Speaker 1: rapid breakthroughs and machine learning. 271 00:19:11,640 --> 00:19:15,119 Speaker 5: Amazon investing up to four billion dollars in startup Anthropic 272 00:19:15,200 --> 00:19:15,720 Speaker 5: as You're. 273 00:19:15,600 --> 00:19:19,240 Speaker 2: Sat reportedly investing ten billion dollars in open AI. 274 00:19:19,359 --> 00:19:22,200 Speaker 1: That is, and truly hundreds of millions of dollars has 275 00:19:22,200 --> 00:19:25,680 Speaker 1: flowed into image generating software powered by AI. 276 00:19:26,160 --> 00:19:30,199 Speaker 2: Microsoft, Amazon, you name it. They are all actively investing 277 00:19:30,600 --> 00:19:33,439 Speaker 2: in young AI startups because you're tried. 278 00:19:33,680 --> 00:19:36,159 Speaker 1: That has made it a lot cheaper and easier to 279 00:19:36,160 --> 00:19:40,080 Speaker 1: make convincing photos or videos of pretty much anything you 280 00:19:40,119 --> 00:19:44,679 Speaker 1: can think of. Now, there are billions upon billions of 281 00:19:44,720 --> 00:19:48,720 Speaker 1: deep fake images out there, and this probably won't surprise you, 282 00:19:49,440 --> 00:19:53,080 Speaker 1: but the vast, vast majority, by one estimate, more than 283 00:19:53,160 --> 00:19:58,680 Speaker 1: ninety percent of all deep fake imagery is pornographic. Typically, 284 00:19:58,880 --> 00:20:01,359 Speaker 1: people who have had their image turned into porn have 285 00:20:01,560 --> 00:20:05,479 Speaker 1: not consented to having their faces, bodies, or voices morphed 286 00:20:05,480 --> 00:20:08,640 Speaker 1: in this way. A lot of people don't even know 287 00:20:08,800 --> 00:20:12,439 Speaker 1: that these images of themselves exist. But as Olivia and 288 00:20:12,480 --> 00:20:16,560 Speaker 1: I learned, Kayla's dad had found this website in a 289 00:20:16,600 --> 00:20:20,280 Speaker 1: regular search of her name, and now he and Kayla 290 00:20:20,359 --> 00:20:21,200 Speaker 1: knew it was there. 291 00:20:22,840 --> 00:20:26,440 Speaker 4: Seeing what people had to say about my body as 292 00:20:26,720 --> 00:20:31,359 Speaker 4: the pictures were like when I'm what thirteen fourteen, I 293 00:20:31,359 --> 00:20:35,320 Speaker 4: think I instantly cried. I was just like I think 294 00:20:35,359 --> 00:20:38,919 Speaker 4: I remember kind of like stating more to myself than 295 00:20:38,960 --> 00:20:41,760 Speaker 4: anybody else, Like why is this happening to me? Like 296 00:20:41,960 --> 00:20:45,160 Speaker 4: what is going on? Like is this even real life? 297 00:20:46,400 --> 00:20:52,159 Speaker 4: I felt betrayed by my body because it felt so real, 298 00:20:53,200 --> 00:20:56,040 Speaker 4: Like the pictures just seemed so real. 299 00:20:57,359 --> 00:21:00,439 Speaker 1: The website he uses also encouraged each other to on 300 00:21:00,480 --> 00:21:04,760 Speaker 1: the images and even harass the person being pictured. 301 00:21:05,240 --> 00:21:10,120 Speaker 4: It's unimaginable to think that people can even say how gross, 302 00:21:10,160 --> 00:21:14,040 Speaker 4: like to tell you to rape me or milk me. 303 00:21:15,320 --> 00:21:18,840 Speaker 4: I remember a lot of mine was with my braces, 304 00:21:18,920 --> 00:21:21,679 Speaker 4: because I had braces until I was in eleventh grade, 305 00:21:22,400 --> 00:21:26,760 Speaker 4: and then I had some pimples, and I would see 306 00:21:26,800 --> 00:21:32,359 Speaker 4: people saying that they loved my brace face and my 307 00:21:32,800 --> 00:21:35,040 Speaker 4: pimples on my face. They like, I'm younger. 308 00:21:38,720 --> 00:21:42,760 Speaker 3: Did you actively search through the website for all photos 309 00:21:42,760 --> 00:21:45,520 Speaker 3: of you and look at other photos on there and 310 00:21:45,880 --> 00:21:48,040 Speaker 3: what the people were saying, or did you just could 311 00:21:48,040 --> 00:21:49,160 Speaker 3: you just not look at it at all? 312 00:21:50,080 --> 00:21:54,960 Speaker 4: No? I constantly looked at it. I was searching to 313 00:21:55,040 --> 00:21:57,520 Speaker 4: see if there were new pictures that would be uploaded. 314 00:21:58,920 --> 00:22:04,040 Speaker 3: After learning about the website, Kayla's biggest question was who 315 00:22:04,080 --> 00:22:09,480 Speaker 3: did this? Who went through the trouble of scraping her 316 00:22:09,520 --> 00:22:13,200 Speaker 3: pictures from social media, editing them to make her look 317 00:22:13,320 --> 00:22:18,000 Speaker 3: naked and then posting them on this site asking others 318 00:22:18,040 --> 00:22:22,879 Speaker 3: to harass her. She wanted it to stop, so she 319 00:22:22,920 --> 00:22:26,000 Speaker 3: took a break from Visco, a photo sharing app. 320 00:22:26,320 --> 00:22:28,680 Speaker 4: Because I started to notice that was the mean place 321 00:22:28,760 --> 00:22:31,199 Speaker 4: that they took my pictures from. 322 00:22:31,320 --> 00:22:34,840 Speaker 3: I mean, for you, you can't unsee that that's your 323 00:22:34,920 --> 00:22:38,199 Speaker 3: body and that's someone putting it out there naked on 324 00:22:38,240 --> 00:22:42,040 Speaker 3: this website. How do you survive and how do you cope? 325 00:22:43,640 --> 00:22:47,480 Speaker 4: I quite literally just put in the back of my 326 00:22:47,520 --> 00:22:51,639 Speaker 4: head and moved on and just did not think about it, 327 00:22:51,800 --> 00:22:57,200 Speaker 4: trying not to think about it. We're still on lockdown, 328 00:22:57,320 --> 00:22:59,760 Speaker 4: so I was stuck with my thoughts a lot. But 329 00:22:59,800 --> 00:23:02,840 Speaker 4: I was also stuck with my family. We all kind 330 00:23:02,880 --> 00:23:04,760 Speaker 4: of just put it in the back of our heads 331 00:23:04,800 --> 00:23:09,320 Speaker 4: and essentially basically pretended that it never happened. 332 00:23:11,640 --> 00:23:14,920 Speaker 1: Kayla didn't tell anyone about it, not even her friends, 333 00:23:15,800 --> 00:23:17,840 Speaker 1: though her father reached out to his colleagues at the 334 00:23:17,920 --> 00:23:22,720 Speaker 1: Nasau County Police Department. He wanted to know what could 335 00:23:22,720 --> 00:23:23,840 Speaker 1: they do to help Kayla. 336 00:23:25,480 --> 00:23:28,240 Speaker 4: My dad did seek advice to his buddies at work. 337 00:23:28,600 --> 00:23:31,280 Speaker 4: He did ask if there was anything that they could 338 00:23:31,280 --> 00:23:34,760 Speaker 4: do but his buddies really didn't know how to go 339 00:23:34,800 --> 00:23:39,040 Speaker 4: about it because it's so hard to trace, like those 340 00:23:39,080 --> 00:23:43,959 Speaker 4: types of websites when they're all anonymous and they're essentially 341 00:23:44,000 --> 00:23:46,720 Speaker 4: a porn website, so it's really hard to trace those 342 00:23:46,760 --> 00:23:49,360 Speaker 4: back to the original owner or anything like that. 343 00:23:50,400 --> 00:23:53,640 Speaker 1: Bear in mind, this was happening in twenty twenty, when 344 00:23:53,680 --> 00:23:57,199 Speaker 1: the term deep fakes wasn't as widespread or recognized as 345 00:23:57,240 --> 00:24:00,240 Speaker 1: it is now, and there weren't any laws, fred rule 346 00:24:00,359 --> 00:24:03,040 Speaker 1: or in New York State at this time to prevent 347 00:24:03,160 --> 00:24:05,679 Speaker 1: faked pornographic images of real people. 348 00:24:06,560 --> 00:24:09,520 Speaker 4: I didn't really know what there was to do after 349 00:24:09,920 --> 00:24:13,160 Speaker 4: my dad already tried to contact the police department and 350 00:24:13,200 --> 00:24:16,760 Speaker 4: his buddies and them just telling us that, like, there 351 00:24:16,800 --> 00:24:20,960 Speaker 4: really was not much that they can do going through 352 00:24:20,960 --> 00:24:25,360 Speaker 4: a complete and trying to go through all the steps 353 00:24:25,400 --> 00:24:27,560 Speaker 4: that it took. I just don't think I was I 354 00:24:27,640 --> 00:24:29,560 Speaker 4: was strong enough at that moment. 355 00:24:32,800 --> 00:24:37,400 Speaker 3: And there's more time passed. Can you describe how your 356 00:24:37,440 --> 00:24:40,600 Speaker 3: feelings about their website and those photos changed. 357 00:24:41,840 --> 00:24:46,760 Speaker 4: I think after some time I stopped looking at the 358 00:24:46,760 --> 00:24:50,280 Speaker 4: website put in the back of my head, but it 359 00:24:50,320 --> 00:24:52,800 Speaker 4: completely altered the way that I thought about my body, 360 00:24:53,440 --> 00:24:58,520 Speaker 4: and there's thing called body dysmorphia. Your brain alters the 361 00:24:58,520 --> 00:25:02,200 Speaker 4: way that you look at your body, and I completely 362 00:25:02,200 --> 00:25:05,720 Speaker 4: went through that. I used to feel so confident about 363 00:25:05,760 --> 00:25:08,439 Speaker 4: it because I was an athlete. I felt so in 364 00:25:08,480 --> 00:25:14,200 Speaker 4: tune with my body, and then I completely changed. I 365 00:25:14,240 --> 00:25:19,840 Speaker 4: started having eating issues and wasn't able to eat full meals. 366 00:25:20,040 --> 00:25:24,600 Speaker 4: I would feel sick after eating. I couldn't even eat 367 00:25:24,600 --> 00:25:26,639 Speaker 4: three bites of food. I would eat two bites and 368 00:25:26,720 --> 00:25:30,679 Speaker 4: feel absolutely disgusted in what I'm eating and disgusted in 369 00:25:30,720 --> 00:25:35,280 Speaker 4: my body for wanting food. It completely changed just who 370 00:25:35,320 --> 00:25:38,280 Speaker 4: I was as a person. I completely got depressed and 371 00:25:39,000 --> 00:25:40,280 Speaker 4: just wasn't myself. 372 00:25:42,200 --> 00:25:45,040 Speaker 1: And that's where the story could have ended, with Kayla's 373 00:25:45,040 --> 00:25:48,480 Speaker 1: faked pictures still online and her and her dad not 374 00:25:48,560 --> 00:25:52,879 Speaker 1: able to do anything about it. Her small, safe, suburban 375 00:25:52,960 --> 00:25:58,160 Speaker 1: world turned upside down. But ten months later, Kayla's phone rang. 376 00:25:58,880 --> 00:26:00,439 Speaker 4: I got a call when I was looking at my 377 00:26:00,480 --> 00:26:04,920 Speaker 4: old job at a clothing store. It was around New 378 00:26:04,960 --> 00:26:11,080 Speaker 4: Year's Eve. I remember it was like seven forty and 379 00:26:11,200 --> 00:26:14,399 Speaker 4: I was behind the register. It was very quiet in 380 00:26:14,480 --> 00:26:17,000 Speaker 4: the store, so I was just on my phone. We 381 00:26:16,840 --> 00:26:18,720 Speaker 4: weren't really supposed to be on our phones. But I 382 00:26:18,800 --> 00:26:22,560 Speaker 4: just remember being on my phone and I see one 383 00:26:22,560 --> 00:26:25,280 Speaker 4: of the classmates. It was her dad's name popped up 384 00:26:25,280 --> 00:26:28,560 Speaker 4: on my phone, which was so weird to me because 385 00:26:28,600 --> 00:26:31,520 Speaker 4: I was like, I don't even have this number, why 386 00:26:32,119 --> 00:26:34,480 Speaker 4: are they calling me? And I just remember the last name. 387 00:26:35,040 --> 00:26:38,920 Speaker 4: And I answered and I was like hello, and she's like, Hi, 388 00:26:39,040 --> 00:26:45,960 Speaker 4: this is blank. She goes, I saw you on the website. 389 00:26:46,200 --> 00:26:48,560 Speaker 4: I just want to let you know I'm also on 390 00:26:48,600 --> 00:26:52,000 Speaker 4: this website. And I remember just like walking away from 391 00:26:52,000 --> 00:26:56,000 Speaker 4: the register and I was just like, okay, like how 392 00:26:56,080 --> 00:26:59,760 Speaker 4: many other people are on there? Who do you think 393 00:26:59,760 --> 00:27:05,160 Speaker 4: it is? And that's when she said, I figured out 394 00:27:05,160 --> 00:27:15,120 Speaker 4: who it was. I think. 395 00:27:15,680 --> 00:27:20,280 Speaker 3: In an instant. Kayla's story got so much bigger from there. 396 00:27:20,400 --> 00:27:24,240 Speaker 3: It would stretch beyond her bedroom, past the high school 397 00:27:24,560 --> 00:27:29,159 Speaker 3: out of Leavertown, across the country, and around the world. 398 00:27:30,359 --> 00:27:33,679 Speaker 1: What she didn't and couldn't know, but what Olivia and 399 00:27:33,680 --> 00:27:36,679 Speaker 1: I would learn through our investigation was that there was 400 00:27:36,720 --> 00:27:40,600 Speaker 1: a global web of cyber criminals taking advantage of a 401 00:27:40,720 --> 00:27:46,159 Speaker 1: plodding justice system being pursued by online vigilantes and hackers 402 00:27:46,800 --> 00:27:51,560 Speaker 1: willing to take risks the cops and prosecutors wouldn't. The 403 00:27:51,560 --> 00:27:55,119 Speaker 1: story took us from New York to small town New Zealand, 404 00:27:55,880 --> 00:28:00,000 Speaker 1: through the darkest corners of the Internet, back into bedroom 405 00:28:00,119 --> 00:28:05,200 Speaker 1: rooms of mid century homes lined up in neat little roads. 406 00:28:19,119 --> 00:28:20,760 Speaker 1: This season on Levett Town. 407 00:28:21,320 --> 00:28:25,040 Speaker 6: There are things you don't want to believe about your friends. 408 00:28:26,040 --> 00:28:28,560 Speaker 6: You kind of think that the people in your circle 409 00:28:28,600 --> 00:28:31,119 Speaker 6: area like you put them on a pedestal. 410 00:28:32,800 --> 00:28:36,280 Speaker 7: This individual was just out to ruin their lives for 411 00:28:36,320 --> 00:28:40,760 Speaker 7: no reason. There was a very new type of crime 412 00:28:40,800 --> 00:28:43,720 Speaker 7: where there was a gray area to say. 413 00:28:44,240 --> 00:28:47,280 Speaker 4: You have certain police officers there will wait for calls 414 00:28:47,320 --> 00:28:49,240 Speaker 4: that come in and then now go and respond to 415 00:28:49,280 --> 00:28:49,840 Speaker 4: those courts. 416 00:28:50,400 --> 00:28:52,280 Speaker 3: I'm the person that will go and hunt people. 417 00:28:53,600 --> 00:28:58,160 Speaker 5: They call it an arms race between law enforcement and technology, 418 00:28:58,720 --> 00:29:02,640 Speaker 5: and it's just where wells we are absolutely losing. 419 00:29:07,520 --> 00:29:11,479 Speaker 3: This series is reported and hosted by Margie Murphy and 420 00:29:11,600 --> 00:29:16,480 Speaker 3: me Olivia Carvell. Produced by Kaleidoscope, Led by Julia Nutter, 421 00:29:16,840 --> 00:29:21,200 Speaker 3: edited by Nita Tuluis Semnani, Producing by Dara luck Potts, 422 00:29:21,640 --> 00:29:26,840 Speaker 3: Executive produced by Kate Osborne. Original composition and mixing by 423 00:29:26,840 --> 00:29:32,560 Speaker 3: Steve bone leavittown archival clips provided by Screen Ocean Clips 424 00:29:32,560 --> 00:29:37,160 Speaker 3: and footage our Bloomberg editors are Caitlyn Kenney and Jeff Grocock. 425 00:29:37,560 --> 00:29:42,440 Speaker 3: Additional reporting by Samantha Stewart. Sage Bowman is Bloomberg's executive 426 00:29:42,480 --> 00:29:46,600 Speaker 3: producer and head of Podcasting. Kristin Powers is our senior 427 00:29:46,680 --> 00:29:51,600 Speaker 3: executive editor. From iHeart, our executive producers are Tyler Klang 428 00:29:51,800 --> 00:29:56,640 Speaker 3: and Nicki Etoor. Leavittown is a production of Bloomberg, Kaleidoscope 429 00:29:56,840 --> 00:30:00,880 Speaker 3: and iHeart Podcasts. If you liked this show, give us 430 00:30:00,880 --> 00:30:02,560 Speaker 3: a follow and tell your friends. 431 00:30:08,360 --> 00:30:08,720 Speaker 5: Mm hmm.