State Senator Dr. Aisha Wahab’s 2024 Full AI Safety Package Signed into Law
Sacramento, CA — State Senator Dr. Aisha Wahab’s (D-Silicon Valley) SB 1381, AI Child Safety, was signed into law by California Governor Gavin Newsom. This is the third bill in Dr. Wahab’s AI Safety Package, which also includes previously signed bills SB 926, Stop the Online Predators Act, and SB 981, Digital Identity Theft Act.
“My AI Safety Package consists of common-sense solutions to protect women and children from digital exploitation,” said Dr. Wahab. “We must ensure we are working with, encouraging, and requiring tech companies to add necessary guardrails that protect vulnerable populations on the internet.”
Dr. Wahab’s AI Safety Policy Package received bipartisan support across the legislature. SB 981 ensures AI-generated imagery is appropriately covered in child pornography laws. SB 926 expands current revenge porn law by prohibiting unauthorized distribution of artificially created sexually explicit images with the intent to cause serious emotional distress to the person depicted in the image. SB 981 requires social media platforms to provide a reporting mechanism for someone to report sexually explicit images they are featured in without their consent.
The Stanford Internet Observatory's 2023 report stated thousands of explicit and abusive images of children are hidden within popular AI image-generators. These images make it easier to create explicit and abusive content. Sensity AI stated in 2021 that up to 95% of online deepfake videos since 2018 were non-consensual porn. Of those non-consensual videos, 90% are of women. Dr. Wahab, when speaking about SB 926, stated that these AI-generated images can ruin an individual’s entire life leading to a lack of workplace promotions, mental health deterioration, shame, and social isolation. In January, a digitized sexually explicit video of Taylor Swift went viral on X, garnering over 27 million views and 260,000 likes in 19 hours, before the videos were permanently blocked from the platform.
All three bills were sponsored by the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office, and Crime Victims Alliance co-sponsored SB 926.
“As AI-based technology continually evolves, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office is working with forward-thinking legislators like Dr. Wahab to keep Californians safe from the dangers of AI porn and related issues,” said District Attorney George Gascón. “We’re honored to work with Dr. Wahab and her colleagues on these groundbreaking and needed changes to law.” All three laws take effect January 1, 2025.