LANSING — As technology advances, federal and local law enforcement officials have warned in recent years of the dangerous scenarios that arise when criminals exploit artificial intelligence to computer generate fake sexual materials of real people, known as deepfake pornography, often for extortive purposes.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. Department of Homeland Security have sounded alarm bells since deepfakes started emerging in 2017, immediately being used to manufacture fake pornographic images and videos of female celebrities. As the technology has improved, creating more realistic materials, federal agencies have called attention to how criminals use the technology for fraud and blackmail.

Instances of this “modern abuse” are increasing nationally and as other states have scrambled to criminalize this emerging form of sexual exploitation, Michigan lacks laws on the books to protect people, Rep. Matthew Bierlein (R-Vassar) said in a news release late last month announcing the reintroduction of legislation to create criminal and civil penalties for distributing such materials.

“These plans update our laws to meet rapidly evolving technology and protect people and their families from falling victim to misuses and abuses,” Bierlein said. “They ensure people can seek justice, instead of seeing a person who is responsible for these types of depraved acts avoid accountability because our state simply lacks laws to address this.”

Bierlein, alongside Rep. Penelope Tsernoglou (D-East Lansing) are the main sponsors on the bill package, which has the support of several bipartisan co-sponsors, just as it did last session when the bills cleared the state House with near unanimous support but didn’t make it off the state Senate floor when the legislative session ended in December.

House Bill 4047 and House Bill 4048 would make the creation and distribution of media falsely portraying an identifiable person in a sexual manner without that person’s permission a crime carrying criminal penalties and allowing victims to sue for damages. Criminal penalties could range from a misdemeanor offense carrying up to a one year sentence to a felony offense carrying up to three years in prison.

Whether the perpetrator distributed the deep fake pornography, publishing or profiting from it from sale or extortion would be under consideration when it comes to assigning charges.

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