We begin tonight with obscene images that were created of some Richland School District students using AI
Now, the school is pursuing the fullest extent of the law against those responsible.
Reporter Baylee Wojcik spoke with district officials and tells us what they’re saying happened.
Richland Superintendent Arnold Nadonley says that multiple Jr/Sr High School students created and sent out inappropriate images of students made with Artificial Intelligence, launching an investigation and pending charges.
On Thursday, several Richland Jr/Sr High School students approached district administration about obscene AI images of students that were circulating throughout the school, according to school officials.
“Obviously once the administration found out about this, they notified me, the administration, then took our normal procedures and notified the Richland Police Department through our school resource officer.
We child-lined this and we also contacted children and youth to start the process.”
Now, they say they’ve found that multiple Jr/Sr High Schoolers were responsible for creating the pictures. Nadonley says that this situation highlights the importance of “see something, say something.”
“Technology certainly can be a good thing and we can all learn from it. But sometimes technology can be uncontrolled. Social media is one of those points and sometimes artificial intelligence can be that way.
This has to be a learning experience for our kids and we have to move on and we have to be better at this.”
He says that the district is pursuing the matter to the fullest extent of the law, while also treating the situation as an opportunity for education. Nadonley says that the district has had to adapfrom past to present technologies, with AI being a new learning experience for both staff and students.
“Obviously we’ve been educating the staff on the good parts of AI and how it can benefit instruction and things like that. Unfortunately, like I said, with anything with technology, somebody’s always going to challenge the boundaries and this is what happened”
“It’s something that wasn’t around a couple years ago. And it’s common sense not to do some of the things that our students here and other places have done, but we need to reinforce that with our students.”
If you have any additional information on the incident, Nadonley says that community members should refrain from posting on social media and should instead contact the Richland SchoolDistrict.