LOWER MAKEFIELD, Pa. (WPVI) — A deputy attorney general for the state of New Jersey has been arrested and charged with using artificial intelligence to create child pornography and sharing child pornography depicting real children through social media, authorities said.
Police earlier executed a search warrant at 51-year-old Brian Fitzgerald’s home in Lower Makefield Twp. in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
New Jersey Deputy Attorney General Brian Fitzgerald has been charged with possessing and distributing child pornography.
Investigators said they uncovered prompts and scripts allegedly used to generate child pornography with AI programs, along with chat logs under a suggestive username in which Fitzgerald allegedly admitted to creating and sharing images.
According to the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office, Fitzgerald was hired 10 years ago and worked on insurance fraud cases.
The arrest has generated strong reactions from residents.
“Disgusting and disturbing, and I hope he gets what he deserves,” said Peter Dowd of Brick, New Jersey.
“It’s awful. I think it’s so sad,” said Marie Rabb of Trenton, New Jersey.
Lower Makefield Township Police Chief Joseph Kelly said investigators are seeing more cases involving artificial intelligence and child exploitation.
“It’s creating more of these cases. It’s creating more tips and more investigations that we need to follow up on,” Kelly said.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children began tracking the use of artificial intelligence in child exploitation cases in 2023.
According to the organization, it handled just over 4,000 cases involving AI that year. By 2025, that number had grown to 400,000 cases, and officials said they are on track to double that figure this year.
Officials said some of the programs being used to create explicit material were not necessarily designed for criminal purposes.
“Many of these tools and products have been rushed to market so quickly that unfortunately bad actors with the right kinds of prompts and the right kinds of technology can use them for really nefarious purposes,” said Lauren Coffren of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
Fitzgerald was unable to post $2 million bail.
A spokesperson for the Attorney General’s Office said Fitzgerald’s employment has been terminated.
Copyright © 2026 WPVI-TV. All Rights Reserved.