Spill

January 9, 2026, 3:48 AM EST. Melissa Sims says her ex-boyfriend used AI-generated texts to frame her, landing her in a Florida jail for a bond violation after she called police during an argument. The texts disparaged him and were not verified, prosecutors later dropped the bond violation, and she went to trial on a battery charge eight months after the initial incident. Judges and experts warn that AI-generated deepfakes-texts, video and images-pose a growing risk to the justice system, with detection tools lagging behind. Drexel's Rob D'Ovidio notes the difficulty of spotting synthetic material; he demonstrated with an AI-generated photo and several detectors giving divergent results. Officials urge a framework and more due diligence before charging, while Sims' case shows the real-world harms of unverified evidence.