Operated the "Patrol 24 Hours" Channel
Over 30 Million Total Views
Also Suspected of Running Illegal Investment Groups and Producing and Selling AI Pornographic Content
A man in his 30s who operated a YouTube channel and produced and distributed fabricated videos using artificial intelligence (AI) has been arrested by the police.
The Cyber Investigation Unit of the Gyeonggi Northern Provincial Police Agency announced on February 2 that it had arrested a man in his 30s, identified as Mr. A, on charges including violations of the Framework Act on Telecommunications.
According to the police, Mr. A is accused of running a YouTube channel called "Patrol 24 Hours" and producing and distributing AI-fabricated videos such as "Video of Chinese National Causing a Disturbance and Being Arrested" and "Video of Police Responding to a Report of a Cross-dressing Man in a Women's Changing Room," which appeared to be shot with a police body camera at the scene of incidents.
Although Mr. A wrote in the channel description that the videos were "not related to actual police and are AI videos adapted from real events," he did not provide any notice within individual videos that they were fabricated using AI, nor did he include a watermark indicating AI production-in fact, he removed such watermarks, according to the investigation.
The videos spread in short-form format on social networking services (SNS) such as Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook, and the total accumulated views reportedly exceeded 30 million.
The police determined that these videos posed a serious risk of undermining public trust in law enforcement authority and public institutions, and therefore arrested Mr. A after opening a case against him.
A police official explained, "The videos made in the early stages were quite crude, but their quality improved over time." The investigation found that Mr. A used generative AI tools such as ChatGPT and Grok in the video production process.
During the investigation, the police also confirmed that Mr. A was involved in operating an unlicensed private futures trading HTS and a foreign futures investment guidance group, acting as a so-called "decoy" to attract victims' attention and receiving approximately 30 million won in return. Additionally, he was found to have operated a paid subscription-based SNS channel, producing and selling pornographic content made with AI for money.
The police stated that they have designated the period until October this year as a special crackdown period for crimes related to false information that undermine community trust and are strengthening enforcement against cases like Mr. A's.
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