Can legislation combat the surge of nonconsensual deepfake porn?
Deepfake porn is now targeting middle school and high schoolers. Lawmakers are trying to fight it.
- Democratic lawmakers in Wisconsin have introduced a bill to criminalize the creation and distribution of “deepfake” scams.
- The proposal would make it a misdemeanor to use deepfakes for coercion or harassment and a felony for financial gain.
- This bill follows recent bipartisan state laws in Wisconsin that regulate AI in campaign ads and sexually explicit content.
- Gov. Tony Evers has urged the federal government to abandon efforts that would limit states’ ability to regulate artificial intelligence.
MADISON – As Gov. Tony Evers sounds the alarm on federal efforts to limit states’ ability to regulate artificial intelligence, a group of Democratic lawmakers has introduced a new proposal to crack down on “deepfake” scams.
Authored by Sen. Sarah Keyeski, D-Lodi, and Rep. Jenna Jacobson, D-Oregon, the new bill would make it a Class A misdemeanor to create and distribute a “synthetic digital representation with intent to coerce, harass, or intimidate” an individual and a Class I felony to do so with the purpose of financial gain.
In a memo seeking co-sponsors, the lawmakers note that deepfake technology can “convincingly replicate a person’s voice, image or mannerisms” and is increasingly used to trick people into sending money or sharing information – for example, a grandparent receiving a call convincing them a loved one is in danger with technology mimicking their voice.
“This bill addresses an issue that causes me real concern: scams that target vulnerable individuals – like our seniors – and trick them into losing great sums of their personal savings,” Keyeski said in a statement.
Wisconsin has in recent years enacted bipartisan state laws governing AI, including a requirement for campaign ads to include a disclaimer if they use artificial intelligence, an expansion of the definition of child pornography to include AI-generated content and a ban on distributing sexually explicit “deepfakes” without consent.
“This is an issue that is increasingly hurting folks across our state and country. I hope this commonsense proposal to protect Wisconsinites is something both my Democratic and Republican colleagues will support,” Keyeski said.
The bill, introduced by Democrats, is currently being circulated for lawmakers to sign on as cosponsors.
It comes the day after Democratic Gov. Tony Evers sent a letter to Republican President Donald Trump urging him to abandon attempts to prevent states from regulating AI.
Evers pointed to the state’s recent bipartisan efforts to enact AI protections and told Trump any federal moves to preempt those policies would make “kids and families in Wisconsin less safe from dangerous and malicious misuses of AI.”
“Put simply, doing so could reopen the door for bad actors in Wisconsin to resume reprehensible behavior we have worked to criminalize while leaving fewer options for local law enforcement to be able to hold those bad actors accountable. This is an untenable and unacceptable result,” Evers wrote.
Trump signed an order last week creating an “AI Litigation Task Force” responsible for challenging state laws deemed to be inconsistent with “the United States’ global AI dominance.” Under the order, states found to have “onerous” AI laws on the books that do not remove them could face a loss of federal funds for broadband and other projects.
The president has said letting states create a “patchwork” of AI regulations would impede U.S. efforts to lead the world in AI development.
Jessie Opoien can be reached at jessie.opoien@jrn.com.
