The Pulse
Florida Sues A2E Operator Over AI-Generated Images of Minors
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier sued Rengstorff Consulting, alleging its A2E image platform lets users create sexualized images of children and non-consenting adults. The state alleges the company’s safeguards failed to stop misuse
AI.info Team · Written with AI · fact-checked ·
“Just because you create the vehicle, it doesn’t give you exemption from liability.”
James Uthmeier, Florida attorney general
Florida targets A2E under consumer law
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier filed a civil lawsuit on October 28 against Rengstorff Consulting, the Nevada company that owns the A2E artificial-intelligence image platform. The complaint, filed in state circuit court in Sarasota County, accuses the company of unfair and deceptive practices under the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.
The state alleges A2E lets users turn photographs of real people—including children—into sexually explicit images and videos. The complaint also says users can alter images of adults to make them appear childlike. Those claims have not been tested in court; the filing is the state’s account, not a judicial finding that the company violated the law.
Uthmeier said during a news conference in Orlando that the state wants to hold the platform operator responsible for the images its software produces. “So we want to make them pay. We want to shut them down,” he said, according to News From The States.
The complaint challenges A2E’s safeguards
The lawsuit alleges that A2E’s terms of service prohibit nonconsensual sexual uses, but argues that the company shifts responsibility for compliance to users. That distinction sits at the center of the state’s case: Florida is challenging not only what users allegedly made, but also whether the platform’s rules and practices meaningfully prevented or addressed that activity.
The complaint describes a Tampa case involving a man arrested earlier this year. Uthmeier alleges the man created more than 100 sexually explicit images of his six-year-old stepdaughter and 10-year-old stepson, including depictions of sexual acts. The attorney general says A2E was used to generate the images; those assertions remain allegations in the civil filing.
Uthmeier also said his office is investigating whether the platform’s conduct may involve criminal offenses. News From The States reported that A2E did not respond to a request for comment. The report does not describe any court ruling or order against the company.
A consumer-protection case, not a finding of guilt
The lawsuit invokes Florida’s consumer-protection law rather than presenting the filing itself as proof that Rengstorff committed a crime. The state’s argument, as described in the complaint, is that the company’s practices were deceptive, unfair and unconscionable. Whether those claims succeed—and what responsibility the operator bears for users’ conduct—will be for the court to determine.
Florida lawmakers approved a separate measure in 2025 requiring social-media companies to delete deepfakes, or AI-generated sexual depictions made without a person’s consent. Uthmeier has said that law is relevant to the dispute, but the new suit proceeds under the state’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.
The immediate legal target is Rengstorff Consulting, not an individual user: Florida’s complaint seeks to stop the company’s alleged practices through a civil case. For now, the specific claims about A2E’s tools, its safeguards and the images cited by the state remain allegations awaiting a court’s review.