Senate Judiciary Committee advances bill to criminalize nonconsensual AI-generated obscene images with child‑protection amendment

Senator Hatchett presented a committee substitute for Senate Bill 398 on the Senate Judiciary Committee floor, saying the measure ‘‘makes it a crime to intentionally cause a generative AI system to generate an obscene image of a real person without that person's consent.” The committee adopted two amendments and voted unanimously to send the substitute to the Rules Committee.

The substitute narrows earlier language so the statute focuses on the creation of nonconsensual obscene images by generative AI — a gap Senator Hatchett said current Georgia law does not clearly cover. ‘‘Georgia law already criminalizes voyeurism, obscenity in the distribution of obscene material,’’ Hatchett said, ‘‘but those codes really were written at a time when the only concern was real images or real videos. AI has changed the ability to manufacture an image of a real…