NH AG sounds alarm bells on AI threat in child porn industry

child sexual abuse material (Courtesy photo)

CONCORD - New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella announced on Tuesday that he, as part of a bipartisan 54-state and territory coalition, is urging Congress to study how artificial intelligence - AI - can and is being used to exploit children through child sexual abuse material and to propose legislation to protect children from those abuses.

"The threat here is real. We are already seeing these emerging AI technologies being co-opted by abusers. Congress must take action now to tackle all forms of online child sexual abuse in order to better safeguard our children," said Formella. "Tech companies know their products are being used to facilitate child sexual abuse and they must be required to do much more to root it out and guard against it."

The dangers of AI as it relates to child sexual abuse material fall into three main categories: a real child's likeness who has not been physically abused being digitally altered in a depiction of abuse, a real child who has been physically abused being digitally re-created in other depictions of abuse, and a child who does not even exist being digitally created in a depiction of abuse that feeds the market for child sexual abuse material .

The letter states, "AI is also being used to generate child sexual abuse material. 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 child sexual abuse material involving the previously unharmed children."

Formella is asking Congress to form a commission to study specifically how AI can be used to exploit children and to "act to deter and address child exploitation, such as by expanding existing restrictions on child sexual abuse material 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."