ST. PAUL, Minn. — On Wednesday, Feb. 26, the US Justice Department charged a Minnesotan former school district employee with using AI technology to generate sexual abuse images of children in his care, as well as possession and receipt of child pornography.
Senator Erin Maye Quade (DFL-Apple Valley), who has introduced legislation to require that companies turn off consumer access to AI nudification technology (SF 1119) in order to protect Minnesotans from non-consensual AI-generated pornographic images, releases the following statement:
“My heart goes out to the children, families and communities affected by this horrific crime. This appalling news is exactly why SF 1119 is so incredibly important. Nudification technology should not be available at all, to anyone. It puts every Minnesotan at risk of having non-consensual porn made of them — and as of now, we have no way of stopping it. The only way to protect Minnesotans is to require companies to stop allowing their products to be used to create AI deepfake porn and sexual abuse material in the first place. We must reckon with this new frontier of consumer protection, and passing this legislation is the first step. Tech companies have abdicated the ethical duties to which any inventor of a technology should be held, and we must hold them responsible for the criminal abuse their inventions have enabled. What’s more, this issue demands federal action, and I urge Congress to pass legislation to protect all people in the US from being victimized in this way. We need national action, today.”
Senator Maye Quade first presented this bill in the Senate Judiciary and Public Safety Committee on Feb. 19 and held a press conference alongside advocates on Feb. 24.
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Learn more about Sen. Maye Quade.
