KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — As artificial intelligence technology develops, so do its dangers. Lawmakers are working to keep laws up to date with the evolution of technology and on Wednesday, a proposed bill aimed at addressing "revenge porn" concerns cleared a Senate committee.
"Revenge porn" are usually sexually explicit images of people. In previous years, the images may have been taken consensually at first and shared with partners, or they could have been taken non-consensually. Later, those images may be non-consensually shared.
Now, authorities are finding non-consensual intimate images shared online that have been made by generative artificial intelligence technology. The tech gives people the ability to take a picture of someone's face and effectively put it onto a nude body, generating sexually explicit content that appears to include someone without their knowledge or consent.
The Take It Down Act aims to address these kinds of images by making it a crime to publish, or threaten to publish, non-consensual intimate imagery. It would also require websites to take down images if a victim reaches out, while also putting in place protections for free speech.
Tori Hirsch, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation’s legal counsel, said the center is seeing a rise in non-consensual intimate image exploitation.
“With OpenAI becoming widely available, we have definitely seen a rise in AI-generated deepfakes since then," she said. “[It] allows people to take images of real people that are not sexually explicit in nature, and then use deepfake tools to create sexually explicit images of these people.
She said the images can be used to extort victims. People may threaten to post them online as a form of intimidation, threatening them. She said from there, fake photos of victims can easily circulate online.
“It can be extremely harmful and readily available on Reddit, and 'X' doesn’t have policies on posting pornography, so it’s a real problem," she said. "Have the highest privacy protections turned on for your social media accounts. If they are not private, make them private."
Hirsh said lawmakers are having to introduce bills and play catch up to technology. On Wednesday, the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation voted unanimously in favor of the Take It Down Act.