Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced Monday the seizure of celebrity deepfake websites.
Those types of sites use AI to alter video, audio or pictures to realistically mimic famous people doing or saying things they never actually did, including pornographic acts.
“Across 12 websites alone that were seized, we identified more than 1,200 people whose images were turned into deepfakes,” Bragg said. “That is 1,200 people whose likenesses, including their faces and their bodies, were turned into AI pornography. The victims here were primarily women and primarily celebrities or other public-facing figures.”
Bragg said the websites were accessible in Manhattan and across the state.
“It is illegal to share real photos and videos of people engaging in sex without their permission,” Bragg said. “Likewise, it is also illegal to show that content if it’s created or altered by artificial intelligence tools.
“I want to be clear. We do not tolerate sexual exploitation in any form, including sharing and selling deepfake pornography,” he added. “These horrific violations of privacy follow victims. They follow victims into their careers and personal lives and take an immense toll on their emotional and mental well-being.”
Bragg’s announcement comes as new warnings about the risks of AI to humans are creating major safety concerns.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei is calling for the industry to slow the pace of developing its most advanced AI models. He said his concern is that capabilities are improving so quickly that safety research may not be able to keep up.
“At the end of the day, the industry has to work together, and it’s harder, but to some extent the world has to work together. If we go too slow, I still believe that the wrong people will be in charge of the technology, and you know that again will bring the probability of things going wrong very high,” Amodei said.
President Trump also recently weighed in on the debate over AI.
“We’re leading China in AI,” Mr. Trump said. “I think you have a lot of negative forces that are bringing it up that shouldn’t be bringing it up.”
In a new CBS News poll, 64% of voters say AI will decrease jobs while 54% say they would vote for a congressional candidate who opposes building data centers.
“Congress should not leave town until something is done decisively to protect the safety and wellbeing of the American people in the face of growing concerns being raised by experts within the artificial intelligence industry itself,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani weighed in on what city government is doing.
“We are going to continue to explore all of the avenues we have to protect New Yorkers. When you speak about [AI], New Yorkers having their own concerns. Recently, we made the decision to ban the use of generative AI from 2-K through eighth grade, and that is an ongoing conversation within city government,” Mamdani said.
New Jersey Democratic Rep. Josh Gottheimer and New York Republican Rep. Mike Lawler have introduced the bipartisan “Stop Rogue AI Act.”
The bill would direct the National Institute of Standards and Technology to develop new ways for tracking and securing AI agents. This includes ways for companies and federal agencies to see what those agents are doing on their networks and stop them when necessary.
