Nashville, Tennessee (WZTV) – The law aimed at restraining the rise of AI-generated child pornography in Tennessee was signed into law Tuesday by Gov. Bill Lee. Senate Bill 741, sponsored by Senator R-Kingston, targets the misuse of artificial intelligence technology to exploit children.
“The law is to keep pace with rapidly evolving technologies to protect children from unthinkable exploitation,” Sen. Yagger said. “Bad actors use AI to create disturbing and abusive content, and Tennessee takes a strong position to stop it. By criminalizing the tools used to generate AI child porn, we are giving law enforcement what we need to pursue criminals and protect victims.”
The new law criminalizes AI to knowingly own, distribute or produce software or technology specifically designed to create or promote the creation of generated child sexual abuse materials.
The law addresses growing concern over the misuse of advanced AI tools and generates realistic and completely synthetic images of minors in the context of pornography.
Related: State Attorney General Coalition calls for addressing the exploitation risks of child Meta
Under the new law, possession of such tools would be classified as a Class E felony. Distribution is a Class C felony. Production of child sexual abuse material generated by AI is a Class B felony. The law does not broadly prohibit AI technology or software, but specifically targets tools aimed at generating child sexual abuse material and stores legitimate applications of AI.
The law will come into effect on July 1st.
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