State Attorney General Anne Lopez has joined a bipartisan coalition of state attorneys general calling on Congress to study how artificial intelligence can and is being used to exploit children through child sexual abuse material and to propose legislation to protect from such abuse.  

What You Need To Know

  • In a letter to lawmakers, the coalition warned that AI tools can, for example, create so-called deepfakes of children by studying real photographs of abused children and generating new images showing those children in sexual positions

  • Hawaii Internet Crimes Against Children commander Ed Arias said AI will cause “an explosion” in the production of CSAM that may be indistinguishable from real images and which will further burden law-enforcement resources

  • The coalition is asking Congress to establish a commission to study how AI can be used to exploit children and to "act to deter and address child exploitation, such as by expanding existing restrictions on CSAM to explicitly cover AI-generated CSAM"

  • Governments and private industry have been scrambling to understand, anticipate and plan for the potential nefarious uses of AI and deepfake technology

“The rise of artificial intelligence and deepfake poses a grave threat to the safety and well-being of our children,” Lopez said. “Attorneys general from around the nation are united in our call to Congress to act to give law enforcement the tools it needs to combat child predators in the age of AI.”

In a letter to lawmakers, the coalition warned that AI tools can, for example, create so-called deepfakes of children by studying real photographs of abused children and generating new images showing those children in sexual positions.

“This involves overlaying the face of one person on the body of another,” the letter states. “Deepfakes can also be generated by overlaying photographs of otherwise unvictimized children on the internet with photographs of abused children to create new CSAM involving the previously unharmed children.”

Hawaii Internet Crimes Against Children commander Ed Arias said AI will cause “an explosion” in the production of CSAM that may be indistinguishable from real images and which will further burden law-enforcement resources.

The coalition is asking Congress to establish a commission to study how AI can be used to exploit children and to “act to deter and address child exploitation, such as by expanding existing restrictions on CSAM to explicitly cover AI-generated CSAM.”

“We are engaged in a race against time to protect the children of our country from the dangers of AI,” the letter stated. “Indeed, the proverbial walls of the city have already been breached. Now is the time to act.”

Governments and private industry have been scrambling to understand, anticipate and plan for the potential nefarious uses of AI and deepfake technology. In March, the China-based social media platform TikTok issued a new set of rules and standards that included a ban on deepfakes of young people.

In July, Pres. Joe Biden announced that his administration had secured commitments from Amazon, Google, Meta and other companies involved in AI development that they would abide by AI safeguards established by the government to ensure they are safe for public use before release.

In addition to Lopez, the South Carolina-led letter is co-sponsored in a bipartisan effort by the attorneys general of Mississippi, North Carolina, Oregon and joined by Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Northern Mariana Islands, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virgin Islands, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.