Description: In February 2026, administrators at Lake Zurich High School in Lake Zurich, Illinois, a northwest suburb of Chicago, reportedly received a complaint that students had used AI to generate explicit images using classmates' likenesses. The district reportedly notified police and affected families. Police described an active investigation into possible transmission of lewd AI-generated material depicting juveniles.
Editor Notes: Timeline notes: The incident ID date is 02/26/2026, based on the date Lake Zurich High School administrators received a report of purportedly AI-generated explicit images depicting students and notified police. Public reporting in early April 2026 described the school and police investigation. The incident ID was created on 07/07/2026.
Entities
View all entitiesAlleged: Synthetic media generation technology developers , Image generation technology developers and Deepfake technology developers developed an AI system deployed by Students , Minors , Lake Zurich High School students and Deepfake creators, which harmed Students , Minors , Lake Zurich High School students , Lake Zurich High School community , high school students , Epistemic integrity , Educational institutions , Educational communities and Privacy.
Alleged implicated AI systems: Synthetic media generation technology , Image generation technology and Deepfake technology
Incident Stats
Incident ID
1574
Report Count
1
Incident Date
2026-02-26
Editors
Daniel Atherton
Incident Reports
Reports Timeline
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A police investigation is underway after students at Lake Zurich High School were reported to have used AI to generate sexually explicit images of female classmates, with school officials calling it "disturbing."
Lake Zurich Community Unit …
Variants
A "variant" is an AI incident similar to a known case—it has the same causes, harms, and AI system. Instead of listing it separately, we group it under the first reported incident. Unlike other incidents, variants do not need to have been reported outside the AIID. Learn more from the research paper.
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