House OKs Knight bill prohibiting deepfake sexual exploitation
STATE HOUSE – The House of Representatives today approved legislation sponsored by Rep. Jason Knight to update the state’s “revenge porn” law to include content generated using artificial intelligence to impose a person’s likeness onto sexually explicit material.
The existing statute, adopted in 2018, prohibited unauthorized dissemination of sexually explicit images of another person. Representative Knight’s legislation (2025-H 5046) expands it to apply to images created by a digital device or altered by digitization, often referred to as deepfakes.
“Victims of technically enabled sexual exploitation have no involvement in the making of any of this material and of course, gave no consent. Once the images are shared, there’s no way to take them back, so the harm is permanent. Celebrities and politicians have been targeted by this practice for several years, and now the technology is so widely available that average citizens are also being victimized,” said Representative Knight (D-Dist. 67, Barrington, Warren). “Without question, deepfake porn is a heinous criminal act, and it should be subject to the laws that prohibit the distribution of sexually exploitative material.”
The legislation now goes to the Senate, where Sen. Andrew R. Dimitri (D-Dist. 25, Johnston) has introduced companion legislation (2025-S 0355).
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SpaceX is scrubbing tonight's launch to the International Space Station. A four person crew was scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral Wednesday evening, but the mission was aborted about an hour before takeoff. The crew would have replaced two astronauts who have been aboard the ISS for over nine months. 
