“Today, we lead the nation in protecting women, children and all members of public life from the harm caused by AI nudification technology,” said Maye Quade. “Companies that offer this technology for free online and in app stores will no longer be able to allow predators to abuse and victimize adults and children with the click of a button.”
Celebrating the passage of the law, Maye Quade thanked “the victim-survivors who made this bill a reality.”
“They have shared their story on the committee, with journalists and with authorities with dignity and courage,” he said. “Their power, brilliance and advocacy is why we passed this bill today. They have had a singular focus on passing this legislation so that what happened to them will never happen to any Minnesotan again.”
A long CNBC report Last September it was exposed how a group of friends in Minnesota first learned that a mutual friend was creating fake nudes of dozens of women. The man apologized, but apparently did not help identify all the victims. There was no evidence that he ever shared the images, so laws like the Take It Down Act didn’t apply, and proving the man’s bad intentions made it unlikely that he would face penalties under revenge porn laws, 19th News reported. Horrified that there was no way to ensure the images hadn’t left his computer and no way to stop the man from continuing to generate fake nudes, the women joined Maye Quade in promoting the law to end the problem at its source.
One of the Minnesota women attacked, Molly Kelley, told 19th News that she dedicated two years of her life to “finding a solution to mitigate the harm when it is actually caused, which is at the moment of creation.”
“These images do not exist without the involvement of third parties and some type of machine learning model,” Kelley said.
However, even if Walz signs the law, tensions remain that could thwart its implementation.
Kelley told 19th News he’s confident the law can overcome legal challenges, should any American company sue to block it, but enforcing the law against app makers in other countries will likely be difficult, if not impossible, for a single state. Notably, the service used to target Minnesota women, DeepSwap, is operated overseas and sometimes claims bases in Hong Kong and Dublin, CNBC reported. Expected state fights to regulate foreign apps are why a federal ban would be preferable, 19th News reported.
