FDLE: Beulah Man Used AI To Create Child Porn; Facing Nine Felonies

April 30, 2026

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement arrested a Beulah man Tuesday following an investigation into the use of artificial intelligence to generate and possess child sexual abuse material.

Tyler Michael Vanover, 38, was taken into custody at his residence on Fort Deposit Drive off Bridlewood Road after a search warrant was executed by state agents. He was charged with eight felony counts of possession of certain images of child pornography and one felony count of unlawful use of a two-way communication device. He remained in the Escambia County Jail with bond set at $150,000.

The investigation began in January 2026 after FDLE received numerous tips from National Center for Missing and Exploited Children indicating that 47 child porn images had been uploaded to a generative AI platform traced back to an IP address at Vanover’s home on Fort Deposit Drive.

During an interview with investigators, FDLE said Vanover confessed that he had a pornography addiction, and the use of AI greatly enhanced that addiction. He confessed to using Grok AI to generate child sexual abuse material, and he asked the AI to generate children in the 16 to 20-year-old range. However, he said at the time the AI would create images of much younger children.

“Vanover made a full confession to his activities online and while using the Grok AI application,” the FDLE agent wrote in his report. “Vanover stated that he had a ’sick’ addiction to pornography, which ultimately led him to generating images.”

FDLE said several child sexual abuse material images were located on Vanover’s laptop that was found inside the residence. According to FDLE, the files depicted a nude female approximately 9 to 11 years of age in a lewd and lascivious manner.

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Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under TOP STORIES