Great Depravity

The enemy of our souls has an enormous arsenal that he can use against humanity. And, technological developments have produced even more resources in order to deceive and destroy people's lives. We have to guard ourselves and our families from these pervasive means of corrupting souls. Psalm 101 states:
2 I will behave wisely in a perfect way. Oh, when will You come to me? I will walk within my house with a perfect heart.
3 I will set nothing wicked before my eyes; I hate the work of those who fall away; It shall not cling to me.
4 A perverse heart shall depart from me; I will not know wickedness.

A hideous extortion scheme using artificial intelligence has led to the death of a 16-year-old boy in Kentucky named Eli Heacock.  The Washington Stand relates this:

As their teenage son lay in the hospital with his life oozing out of him, Eli Heacock’s parents felt their grief compounded by confusion: They had no idea why he had committed suicide.

Then they found his phone.

Messages showed their son — 16-year-old Elijah “Eli” Manning Heacock of Glasgow, Kentucky — had fallen prey to an extortioner, who convinced Eli to send photos of himself, which the predator used to generate sexually explicit images using artificial intelligence (AI).

This extortioner, described accurately as a "predator" in the article, demanded $3000 from young Eli, who tried to raise the money, but fell short.  As the article states:

The tragic death highlights the changing profile of sexual abuse and predation. Parents “no longer [have] to be scared of the white van that drives around. You have to be scared of the internet,” said Eli’s mother, Shannon Heacock.

Her son is far from the first person to lose his life to online sexual extortionists. “From October 2021 to March 2023 ... sextortion involved at least 12,600 victims — primarily boys — and led to at least 20 suicides,” according to the FBI.

Arielle Del Turco, Director of the Center for Religious Liberty at Family Research Council, who has been a guest on The Meeting House, says: “It’s absolutely horrific and tragic that criminals used AI-generated images to extort money out of a teenage boy, ultimately resulting in him taking his own life..." The article notes that, "FRC previously highlighted concerns raised by AI chatbots, which appear to be human, engaging in sexually explicit dialogue with minors online — or stoking pedophiles’ fantasies by posing as sexually precocious children."

Lawmakers have been attempting to limit this type of activity - as The Washington Stand notes, Eli's home state of Kentucky has a law against sexual extortion and Congress recently passed the "Take it Down Act," which "makes it illegal to knowingly publish, or threaten to publish, intimate images without a person’s consent; it also requires websites to remove such images within 48 hours of a victim’s valid request and help track down any sites that have republished the material."

But, there are legislative areas of concern: the United Nations has allowed member nations to limit prosecution of objectionable material, and in Congress, the current spending bill being considered by the Senate has a provision that bans states from regulating AI technology for 10 years.  The article states:

“We can’t afford to be behind the ball on creating policies that govern AI,” Del Turco told TWS. “The effects are too far-reaching” — a fact Eli’s mother, Shannon, knows too well.

There are maneuvers of the enemy that are beyond our comprehension - people either being duped or intentionally participating in unimaginable acts.  While it may be almost impossible to comprehend the depths of the depravity in our world today, we must know that it is there and reject the temptation that the enemy presents to us and our families. 

And, know that there is power to overcome.  But, if we are unwittingly being lured into compromising situations, we lose the winning advantage that Jesus died in order to purchase for and grant to us. There is great wickedness, certainly, but there is great victory as we rely on the everlasting arms of the One who is mighty to save.