Wisconsin lawmakers look to make AI-generated child porn illegal

As the technology behind porn changes, so do Wisconsin’s laws.

That's the explanation behind the new legislation that would make artificial intelligence-generated child pornography a crime.

The Senate Committee on Judiciary held a hearing on Senate Bill 314, which would treat sexually explicit, computer generated pictures or videos of children and underage teenagers exactly the same as traditional child porn.

“The creation and possession of AI generated child sex images is not currently a crime in our state. We have no accountability for those who engage in pedophilic desires and fantasies with computer generated content,” Sen. Jesse James, R-Altoona, told lawmakers.

The new legislation came from The Speaker’s AI Task Force, and James said by working with the state’’s Department of Justice.

Rep. Calvin Callahan, R-Tomahawk, said that even though AI child porn is created by computer software, there are real victims somewhere.

“You could be saying to yourself ‘Well if it's artificial, then where is the harm in the person using that? There isn't a victim is there?’” Callahan said. “The truth of the matter is that the data used to create these fake images has to come from somewhere, those being real victims.”

Callahan said AI porn is more than just images depicting young children having sex with adults.

He said there are countless stories of people using AI technology to create revenge porn or to sextort people.

“I've been told about a high school student in Wisconsin who uses AI to create nude photos of his classmates. He uses the AI software to add underage classmates faces’ to nude bodies. This is the creation of child pornography, and this in Wisconsin today is sadly legal,” Callahan said.

Callahan said creating the new AI porn law would help investigators by eliminating their need to “sift through” the AI images to see which ones were created from a specific real image.

The plan would be a Class D felony and include a mandatory minimum three-year prison sentence for anyone more than 18 years old, or anyone two years older than their victim.