FARGO — The number of child sex abuse material reports is growing in North Dakota, and state officials are concerned about what they call a troubling use of artificial intelligence to create the criminal images.

North Dakota is on track to receive more than 2,000 tips this year of child sex abuse materials, also called CSAM, from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, state Deputy Attorney General Claire Ness told The Forum this week. That’s almost a 200% jump from the 2020 number of 585 tips and a 28% increase from last year, according to numbers from the North Dakota Attorney General’s Office.

As of Friday, Oct. 10, North Dakota had received 1,745 tips related to child sex abuse materials this year, according to the office's data.

Part of that growing trend is the u

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