Deepfakes
3 items across 3 editions · appeared in the last 2 editions in a row. First seen Fri 11 Sep, last seen Tue 15 Sep.
- The Manhattan District Attorney's Office announced on 14 September that it seized 12 domain names, tied to five online vendors and involving approximately 1,200 victims, in what it calls the largest known seizure of AI-generated celebrity deepfake websites to date. The seizures were carried out pursuant to a court order.
- The office says the victims were overwhelmingly women and primarily public-facing individuals, including actors, politicians, athletes, musicians, social justice advocates and social media influencers.
- District Attorney Alvin Bragg is quoted saying "1,200 individuals had their faces and bodies stolen and turned into illegal pornography on 12 different websites – without their knowledge or consent".
- The release does not name the vendors, does not say whether anyone has been charged, and does not specify which statutes were used; it directs the investigation to the office's Cyber Crime Bureau.
- In a report published on 14 September, Parliament's Joint Committee on Human Rights called for a new bill on AI to "address the scale and seriousness" of the threats it identifies, saying the current legal framework is "fragmented and difficult to navigate".
- The committee's chair, Labour MP Alex Sobel, said: "Nowhere in the world, including the UK, has a current legislative and regulatory approach to AI that is fit for purpose."
- IT Pro lists the recommendations: a single independent statutory AI oversight body able to set codes of practice, enforce transparency and impose sanctions; a distinction between low-risk and high-risk systems; outright bans on some uses including subliminal techniques and inappropriate biometric profiling; due diligence across the AI supply chain; and clarification of data protection law on automated decision-making. The report notes the AI Security Institute operates voluntarily, without statutory power to test or block a risky release.
- This is a select-committee recommendation, not law. The BBC reports Education Minister Georgia Gould pointed to existing government action on non-consensual deepfakes, cyber security legislation and the AI Security Institute; no dedicated AI bill has been introduced, and the government is not obliged to accept the recommendations.
- On 10 September California enacted thirteen bills. SB 1119 (Padilla, with Wicks and Bauer-Kahan), known as Adam's Law after Adam Raine, requires companion chatbot operators to maintain crisis protocols for suicidal ideation, provide parental controls, commission independent child-safety audits and conduct annual risk assessments.
- The package extends beyond chatbots: AB 1709 (Lowenthal) restricts platform features for minors and creates an e-Safety Advisory Commission; SB 867 (Padilla) regulates companion chatbot toys; SB 1276 (Rubio) expands child sexual exploitation offences to cover AI-generated and AI-altered material; and AB 1856 (Wicks) requires age-verification signals from software applications. Civil penalties of up to $250,000 per action apply to third parties facilitating distribution of deepfake pornography.
- This is the most detailed operational mandate yet placed on conversational AI products in the US — auditing and risk assessment obligations rather than disclosure alone — and California's market size makes it a de facto national floor.
- The Governor's announcement does not state effective dates or compliance deadlines for the individual bills, and does not specify which regulator enforces the chatbot audit requirement.