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This article originally appeared on WND.com
Guest by post by Bob Unruh
The letter from Rep. Good wants Garland to ‘take action quickly’
Dozens of members of Congress are calling on the Justice Department to take action to protect children from the massive advances in artificial intelligence and the child sexual abuse material it creates.
A report on the Washington Stand explains that Rep. Bob Good, a Virginia Republican, was joined by 29 others in Congress in a letter to Joe Biden’s Attorney General Merrick Garland.
They express “serious concerns” about the spread of AI-generated material online.
The Stand explained that Good’s letter calls for “swift action” against the offensive and threatening material.
“The letter describes how advances in AI from 2019 onwards allowed a perpetrator to upload a single image of a victim and generate CSAM in seconds. Within just a year, the letter said, “the AI application had already been used to target more than 100,000 individuals,” the report said.
The letter cites reports that despite CSAM being illegal, there has been no prosecution by the DOJ.
Circuit courts have already concluded that the computer-generated material can be used as evidence in prosecutions initiated under existing child pornography and obscenity laws.
The letter is not the first to express these concerns, The Stand reports. Just a week ago, attorneys general from all 50 states plus four territories signed a similar letter urging Congress to review the exploitation of AI children.
“While internet crimes against children are already actively prosecuted, we are concerned that AI is creating a new frontier for abuse that makes prosecution more difficult. We are in a race against time to protect our nation’s children from the dangers of AI. The proverbial walls of the city have indeed already been breached. Now is the time to act,” they wrote.
According to Meg Kilgannon, senior fellow in Education Studies at the Family Research Council, the concerns are justified.
“The types of depravity the community finds on the internet and even in real life are shocking and difficult to combat,” she said in The Stand report. “I’m Rep. Good thanks for addressing this problem. All 50 AGs have signed on to a letter calling for federal intervention. That kind of bipartisan engagement is rare, and it is reassuring to see elected officials willing to put aside differences to protect children and combat child sexual abuse.”
The congressional letter states that Garland describes how the DOJ is addressing threats from AI-generated CSAM, whether the criminal law should be updated to allow for prosecutions, and whether the DOJ will initiate an investigation into the AI material.
“While we recognize the benefits of appropriate uses of AI, including medical research, cybersecurity, streamlining public transportation and many other applications, we believe action must be taken to prevent individuals from using AI to create sexual harassment material to generate abuse of children.”
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