The fight against deepfake images was stepped up in NSW today, with the introduction of laws in parliament making sexually-explicit images illegal.
Under the legislation, existing offences covering the production and distribution of intimate images without consent would be extended to include those created by Artificial Intelligence (AI).
It is already a crime in NSW to record or distribute intimate images of a person without their consent or to threaten to do so. This includes intimate images that have been digitally altered.
Deepfakes are images that look incredibly realistic but are made using artificial intelligence, or AI.
One person who supports the law changes is TV presenter Tiffany Salmond, who was disgusted to find her social posts had been altered and turned into something more sinister.
“There was just so many deepfakes created, it just started an absolute onslaught,” she told 9News.
It’s estimated 98 per cent of deepfakes circulating online are pornographic and most victims depicted are women.
“They did it to humiliate me, degrade me, maybe even make me question my own actions of posting a bikini pic online,” Salmond said.
“Girls at school, people in the workplace … I honestly can’t imagine how I would have reacted if I was a girl in high school.
“I wasn’t going to let it happen. I wanted them to know I see it [and] I actually think you are kind of pathetic.”
Current laws will be amended to make the production of a sexually explicit deepfake designed to be a genuine depiction of a real, identifiable person an offence punishable by up to three years’ jail.
Sharing or threatening to share such images, even if the person hasn’t created them, will also be a crime carrying a maximum three-year prison sentence.
In addition to these new offences, the NSW government will criminalise the creation, recording and distribution of sexually explicit audio, whether real or designed to sound like a real, identifiable person.
The changes will bring NSW into line with other jurisdictions that have criminalised the non-consensual production and distribution of sexually explicit material involving adults, regardless of how it is created.
Attorney General Michael Daley said the law had to catch up with technology to protect people, particularly young women, from image-based abuse.
“This bill closes a gap in NSW legislation that leaves women vulnerable to AI-generated sexual exploitation,” he said.
“We are ensuring that anyone who seeks to humiliate, intimidate or degrade someone using AI can be prosecuted.”
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