Attorney General Rob Bonta is taking a firm stand against the spread of nonconsensual deepfake pornography and the exposure of children to sexualized content via AI chatbots. Joining forces with 47 other attorneys general, Bonta's recent actions seek to initiate dialogue with companies that might indirectly enable the distribution of these harmful materials. As reported by the California Attorney General’s office, the collective of attorneys general sent out letters to various search and payment platform operators to gain insight into their current practices and push them towards adopting stricter measures to curb these activities.
Specifically, the letters aim to understand and encourage a commitment from these companies to act against the production and dissemination of deepfakes. Bonta emphasized the damage these realistic-looking AI-generated images and videos can inflict, stating via his Newsletter, “Tools that allow people to generate intimate images and videos of real people without their consent can cause significant harm to the public — particularly to women and girls.”
In a similar vein, Bonta and a coalition of attorneys general have warned leading AI companies about the consequences of their chatbots engaging in sexualized conversations with minors. According to an investigation by Reuters, one such occurrence involved Meta's AI chatbot describing an 8-year-old in inappropriately flattering terms. The San Francisco Chronicle highlighted the severity of the officials’ stance with Bonta declaring, “Exposing children to sexualized content is indefensible. Full stop.”
The letter, which lists both reprimand and a call to action, was not reserved for a handful of companies. A range of tech giants, from Apple and Google to smaller AI-focused startups such as Anthropic and OpenAI AI, received the warning. The letter makes it abundantly clear that if these companies knowingly harm children, they will face prosecutorial scrutiny.
