Top prosecutors in all 50 states urge Congress Research how artificial intelligence can exploit children through pornography, and develop legislation to further prevent it.
In a letter to Republican and Democratic leaders in the House and Senate on Tuesday, attorneys general across the country called on federal lawmakers to “create an expert committee to study artificial intelligence means and methods that could be used to specifically exploit children” Existing restrictions on child sexual abuse material specifically cover AI-generated imagery.
“We are in a race against time to protect our nation’s children from the dangers of artificial intelligence,” prosecutors wrote in a letter shared ahead of time with The Associated Press. Time to act.”
South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson spearheaded the letter, which added signatories from all 50 states and four U.S. terrorist groups. The Republican, who was elected to a fourth term last year, told The Associated Press last week that he hopes federal lawmakers will translate bipartisan support for legislation on the issue into action.
“Everybody’s focused on everything that divides us,” said Wilson, who formed the coalition with his counterparts in Mississippi, North Carolina and Oregon. “My hope is that no matter how extreme or antagonistic the parties and people on the same spectrum may be, you’ll argue that protecting children from new, innovative and exploitative technology is something that even the most diametrically opposed individuals can agree on . . . — it appears they did.”
The Senate held hearings this year on the possible threats posed by AI-related technologies. In May, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman (whose company makes the free chatbot tool ChatGPT) signifies government intervention Critical to mitigating the risks of increasingly powerful AI systems. Altman proposed creating a U.S. or global agency that would license the most powerful AI systems, with the power to “rescind that license and ensure compliance with safety standards.”
While there are no immediate signs that Congress will enact sweeping new AI rules, as European lawmakers are doingsocietal concerns prompted U.S. agencies to commit to crack down on harmful AI products that violate existing civil rights and consumer protection laws.
Beyond the federal action, Wilson said he encouraged other attorneys general to take a closer look at their own state statutes for possible areas of concern.
“We started thinking, are the child exploitation laws on the books keeping up with the novelty of this new technology?”
According to Wilson, the dangers posed by AI include the creation of “deepfake” scenes — videos and images digitally created or altered by artificial intelligence or machine learning — of children who have been abused, or altered likenesses taken from social media. to extract likenesses of real children from things like photographs of the abuse.
“Your children have never been attacked, your children have never been exploited, yet their likeness is used as if it were taken advantage of,” he said. “However, we are concerned that our laws may not address the virtual nature because your children are not actually being exploited – although they are being defamed and their image is of course exploited.”
A third possibility, he noted, is the complete digitization of fictional images of children for the purpose of creating pornographic content.
“The argument is, ‘Well, I didn’t hurt anyone — in fact, it wasn’t even a real person,’ but you’re creating demand for an industry that exploits children,” Wilson said.
Several initiatives have been taken within the tech industry to address this issue. In February, Meta, along with adult sites such as OnlyFans and Pornhub, began participating in the online tools, called “put it down”, which allows teens to report explicit images and videos of themselves from the internet. The reporting site works with both regular imagery and AI-generated content.
“AI is a great technology, but it’s an industry disruptor,” Wilson said. “New industries, new technologies are disrupting everything, including law enforcement and protecting children. The bad guys are always thinking about how to get away with justice, and we must evolve with it.”
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