Senate passes bill to combat sexually explicit deepfakes

The Senate unanimously passed a bill Tuesday that would allow victims of unwanted, intimate images created by artificial intelligence (so-called deepfakes) to sue their creators for damages.

This DEFIANCE Act allows victims of sexually explicit deepfakes to pursue civil claims against those who produced or manipulated the image with the intent to distribute it. Victims identified in such deepfakes can receive up to $150,000 in damages under the statute, and up to $250,000 if the incident involved “actual or attempted sexual assault, stalking, or harassment” or a “direct and proximate cause” of those harms. The House must now take up the bill before it goes to the president’s desk and is signed into law.

In a speech on the Senate floor, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said sexually explicit deepfakes are not “just some fringe issue that affects a few people — it’s a widespread problem. These types of malicious and hurtful images can destroy lives.”

Schumer said the DEFIANCE Act is just “one example of the AI ​​safeguards I often talk about. AI is an amazing technology that can spur incredible innovation, but we need to get through safeguards to prevent its worst abuses from causing serious harm to people.” Earlier this year, he outlined a roadmap for how Senate committees should approach AI legislation.

He urged the House to take up the DEFIANCE Act. There is already a companion bill in the chamber, even though there is only a week and a half left until the August recess.

“By passing this bill, we are letting victims of blatant, unwanted deepfakes know that we hear them and we are taking action,” Schumer said.