Minnesota advances deepfakes bill to criminalize people sharing altered sexual, political content

Woman looking up social medial at late night lying in bed, Internet addicted

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — In a nearly unanimous vote, the Minnesota Senate has passed a bill that would criminalize people who non-consensually share deepfake sexual images of others, and people who share deepfakes to influence an election.

Deepfakes are videos and images that have been digitally created or altered with artificial intelligence or machine learning. That technology is easier to use now than ever before. The bill would allow prosecutors to charge people with up to five years in prison and $10,000 in fines for disseminating deepfakes.

To become law, the bill must still go through a conference committee and get signed by the governor.