BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) – A Louisiana man is accused of using artificial intelligence to create nude images and a sexually explicit deepfake video of a female co-worker, then showing the material to her, according to an arrest warrant filed in East Baton Rouge Parish.
Bennet Gauthreaux, 55, of Pierre Part, is accused of one felony count of unlawful deepfakes under Louisiana law.
The Baton Rouge Police Department investigation began after the woman reported the allegations Sept. 8.
According to the warrant, the woman and Gauthreaux were co-workers who had been commuting together to and from work. During one of those commutes, she told police Gauthreaux showed her several artificially generated images depicting her nude.
She also told investigators he showed her an artificially generated video depicting the two of them engaging in simulated sexual intercourse.
The woman told police the sexual activity shown in the video never happened and that she never gave Gauthreaux permission to create nude or sexually explicit images or videos of her.
According to the warrant, Gauthreaux showed the images and video to her on his phone. She used her own phone to record what he was showing her and later gave that evidence to police.
Investigators said they reviewed the material and found AI-generated nude images of the woman, along with other images showing her and Gauthreaux in sexual situations.
Police also obtained text messages between the two.
According to the warrant, one message from Gauthreaux said, “I will delete most, but I love that image of me and you…” Another said, “All stuff of you deleted, as you wished.”
Investigators said Gauthreaux also wrote that he deleted the images from his phone and from online cloud storage connected to the website used to create them. Police said the messages showed he knew about the images and had possessed them.
The woman also told investigators Gauthreaux had previously expressed romantic or sexual interest in her.
Gauthreaux faces charges under Louisiana’s unlawful deepfakes law.
The law makes it a crime to knowingly share, show or distribute sexually explicit deepfake images or videos of another person without that person’s consent.
If convicted under the part of the law cited in the warrant, Gauthreaux could face 10 to 30 years at hard labor, a fine of up to $50,000, or both.
Louisiana lawmakers made unlawful deepfakes a crime in 2023. The law took effect Aug. 1, 2023, and includes offenses involving sexually explicit deepfakes of adults as well as separate crimes involving minors.
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Under Louisiana law, a deepfake is digitally created or altered audio, video or imagery made to look like an authentic recording of something a person actually said or did.
Louisiana expanded its laws involving AI-generated sexual images again in 2026 with the Ivy Daniels Act. The law added protections involving AI-generated nude images of minors and requires schools to teach students in sixth grade and above about the crimes and potential consequences involving AI-generated images.
Those changes are separate from the charge Gauthreaux faces.
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