Not allowed to regulate deepfakes? Pennsylvania penalizes fraudulent likeness amid proposed AI law moratorium

Pennsylvania‘s Senate unanimously passed legislation making it a crime to distribute deepfake AI images while misrepresenting them as authentic, expanding the state’s forgery laws to include digitally-generated likenesses. However, the bill faces potential nullification from a federal budget provision that would ban states from enforcing AI regulations for the next decade, threatening Pennsylvania’s entire slate of AI-related legislation.

What you should know: The new bill would criminalize passing off deepfake images “with intent to defraud or injure anyone,” building on last year’s law that addressed AI-generated child pornography and non-consensual explicit material.

In plain English: Deepfakes are AI-generated images that can make it appear someone said or did something they never actually did, often created by feeding artificial intelligence programs thousands of photos to learn how to mimic a person’s appearance.

The federal threat: A clause buried in the proposed federal budget deal would prohibit state-level AI enforcement for ten years, reportedly added at the urging of AI development companies seeking to avoid a “patchwork of state-level regulations.”
• The moratorium would nullify all existing Pennsylvania AI laws, including both the newly passed deepfake bill and previous measures targeting AI-generated explicit content.
• Hundreds of bipartisan state lawmakers nationwide have signed a letter urging Congress to reverse course, warning that a decade-long suspension would “restrict policymakers from responding to emerging issues.”

What they’re saying: “We’ve got to protect our children now, and we’ve got to protect our constituents now,” said Sen. Tracy Pennycuick, R-Montgomery County, one of the bill’s prime sponsors, emphasizing the need for immediate action rather than waiting for federal regulatory frameworks.
• “We’re very, very concerned,” Pennycuick added. “What’ll happen is that will nullify all of our AI bills.”

Broader implications: The federal provision would also affect pending Pennsylvania legislation, including a House proposal requiring political campaigns to disclose AI-generated candidate images.

Budget timeline uncertainty: While the budget bill passed the House last month, it faces significant Senate hurdles beyond the AI issue, including concerns about adding trillions to the federal deficit and cutting Medicaid coverage to offset proposed tax cuts.