Montana man charged with creating AI-generated child sexual abuse material
Montana prosecutors charged a 31-year-old man with three felony counts of child sexual abuse after he allegedly used artificial intelligence to digitally alter images of a child obtained from social media to create child sexual abuse material. The case represents law enforcement's use of new legislation passed in Montana in 2025 to prosecute AI-facilitated child exploitation.
What happened
On August 21, 2025, Shy Herbert McCutchan, 31, was charged with three felony counts of sexual abuse of children for possession of explicit images and videos depicting a child under age 12. According to the Montana Attorney General's Office, McCutchan captured images of a child from the parents' public social media account and used artificial intelligence to create manipulated content with the photos.
The National Center for Missing and Endangered Children received multiple cyber tips that child sexual abuse material was uploaded to a wireless cloud backup from McCutchan's devices. At least one of the three counts involved AI-generated content. McCutchan was arrested in Alzada by the Carter County Sheriff's Office and the Division of Criminal Investigation.
Reported impact
A child's image from public social media was used without consent to create artificial intelligence-generated child sexual abuse material.
Index analysis
Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen stated that using AI to digitally alter images of children located on social media is becoming more common among child sex predators. House Bill 82, passed and signed into law during the 2025 Legislative Session, allows for the prosecution of sex predators utilizing artificial intelligence to digitally alter images.
Governance controls
McCutchan is being held on a $250,000 bond as ordered by District Court Judge Rennie Wittman. He faces up to 100 years in prison for each of the three charges. An arraignment has been set for September 9.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.