Attorney General Lynn Fitch led a bipartisan coalition of 54 state and territory Attorneys General in urging Congress to create a commission of experts to study how artificial intelligence (AI) can and is being used to exploit children through child sexual abuse material (CSAM). The Attorneys General also urged Congress to consider legislation to protect children from those abuses.
“Protecting our most vulnerable citizens is one of my top priorities,” said Fitch. “While there may be many opportunities for the use of artificial intelligence to help people in their work and lives, it can also be used as a new tool for predators to sexually exploit children online. We cannot afford to wait; we must take action now to proactively protect our children from this emerging threat.”
In their letter to Congress, the Attorneys General write, “AI is also being used to generate child sexual abuse material (CSAM). For example, AI tools can rapidly and easily create ‘deepfakes’ by studying real photographs of abused children to generate new images showing those children in sexual positions. This involves overlaying the face of one person on the body of another. 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.”
The Attorneys General specifically ask Congress to form a commission to thoroughly examine 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.”
The letter continues, “We are engaged in a race against time to protect the children of our country from the dangers of AI. Indeed, the proverbial walls of the city have already been breached. Now is the time to act.”
The Attorneys General from the following states joined General Fitch in sending this letter: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, 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 Carolina, North Dakota, Northern Mariana Islands, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virgin Islands, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
