Governor Pritzker Signs Bill to Tackle AI-Generated Child Pornography

CHICAGO (CBS) — Illinois Governor JB Pritzker has signed a bill clarifying that state laws against child pornography also apply to images and videos created using artificial intelligence.

Pritzker signed the bill, HB4623, last Friday, which takes effect January 1.

The measure prohibits the use of artificial intelligence to create child pornography involving real children or obscene images. The legislation also prohibits the non-consensual distribution of certain AI-generated sexual images.

“Now more than ever, we must address the challenges of AI-generated images and videos in child pornography,” Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul said in a statement in April. “Child exploitation of any kind can be a devastating crime that leaves survivors and their families with a lifetime of trauma. We must hold predators accountable so survivors can receive justice to support their healing.”

In Laguna Beach, California, Police and school officials investigate reports of nude photos of high school students taken with AI and distributed to students last week. And last month in Beverly Hills, five high school students were expelled after using AI to take and distribute nude photos of classmates.

In March, students from Richmond Burton Community High School in Richmond, Illinois—in McHenry County, near the Wisconsin state border—claimed that their photos had been edited into sexually explicit images and sent to other classmates.