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Committee hears bill to expand revenge‑porn statute to cover AI‑altered images
Summary
Representative Knight proposed expanding the state’s revenge‑porn law to include images altered by digital processes such as artificial intelligence. Supporters said AI tools make it easy to create explicit images without consent; the ACLU and other civil‑liberties groups warned the statute as written may lack intent requirements and may capture
House Bill 5046 would amend the state’s revenge‑porn statute to cover images that have been altered by digital processes, including AI, and to update the law’s definitions to account for synthetic or manipulated images. Representative Knight, sponsor of the measure, told the committee that readily available tools can produce realistic explicit images of private individuals and that the existing law should cover those harms.
Knight said the bill’s language is modeled on New York’s statute and that the intent is to criminalize deliberate distribution of altered explicit images to harass victims. He cited news reports of minors and adults targeted by manipulated images and said the expansion would allow prosecutors to pursue malicious actors who weaponize AI.
Stephen Brown of the ACLU of Rhode Island and other civil‑liberties witnesses opposed the measure as drafted, arguing it could capture satirical or parody images and lack the necessary mental‑state element in some provisions. Brown said the law must preserve clear First Amendment exceptions for public‑figure matters of public concern and for parodies that no reasonable person would mistake for a real image.
Committee members noted the policy tension between protecting victims and preserving free‑speech safeguards and left the bill in committee for further amendment and legal review.
