AI Frontier Institute · Story
The deepfake and intimate-image wave
States rewrote their intimate-image and election laws to reach AI-generated fakes, Congress added a federal crime and a takedown duty, and the wave kept moving through 2026.
April 10, 2025
North Dakota requires an AI disclaimer on political content
HB 1167 added a section to the state's election corrupt-practices chapter: political communications that use AI to impersonate a human must carry the statement THIS CONTENT GENERATED BY ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE. Text-only uses such as grammar correction are exempt.
May 12, 2025
South Carolina criminalizes digitally forged intimate images
H. 3058 (Act 37) created the offense of unauthorized disclosure of intimate images and defined a digitally forged intimate image as one generated or substantially modified by machine learning to falsely depict a real person. Penalties step up with intent to harm or profit.
May 19, 2025
The TAKE IT DOWN Act becomes law
S. 146, passed by the Senate in February and the House on April 28, 2025 (409 to 2), was signed on May 19, 2025 as Public Law 119-12. It made it a federal crime to knowingly publish nonconsensual intimate depictions, including AI digital forgeries, and required covered platforms to remove such images within 48 hours of a valid notice. The criminal provisions took effect at signing; platforms got one year.
June 20, 2025
Maine extends its private-image law to generated images
Public Law Chapter 400 (LD 1944) rewrote the crime of unauthorized dissemination of private images to reach any image created or modified to appear to show the person, and made a threat to share such an image a ground for a protective order.
March 7, 2026
Wyoming enacts HB 102 on deepfakes and exploitative images
The act created offenses for using synthetic sexual material or AI against children, using AI to promote self-harm, and using AI to censor political speech, added private causes of action, and declared that using AI to commit a crime is no defense to it.
May 19, 2026
The federal takedown duty takes effect
One year after signing, the TAKE IT DOWN Act's notice-and-removal requirement began to bind covered platforms, with the Federal Trade Commission as the enforcer. The federal floor now sits under the state criminal statutes.
June 9, 2026
Louisiana signs HB 119 (Act 782)
The act addresses unlawful conduct involving AI-created images of another person, effective August 1, 2026, one of several 2026 sessions that added AI-image offenses to existing criminal codes.
July 14, 2026
Hawaii adds civil remedies for realistic digital imitations
HB 2137 (Act 247) made it unlawful to knowingly publish a realistic digital imitation of an identifiable person without consent when used in advertising, to cause harm, or to commit fraud, defamation, or harassment, with exemptions for parody, commentary, and scholarship. The wave moved from criminal law into civil remedies.