Federal prosecutors have indicted two men who used artificial intelligence to create nude images and videos of female celebrities under the Take It Down Act, a bipartisan law enacted last year that imposes stricter penalties for deepfake pornography.
The defendants are among the first to face charges under the legislation, which also targets non-consensual intimate imagery commonly known as “revenge porn.” The law received support from both political parties and backing from First Lady Melania Trump.
The Charges
U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella in Brooklyn said in a statement that the men “used cutting-edge digital technology to create images that degraded and violated” dozens of women. “This case makes clear that posting deepfake pornography is not a victimless crime,” Nocella added.
Prosecutors said one defendant from Texas posted deepfake content depicting both celebrities and private individuals, including recent high school graduates. The indictment reflects growing concerns about artificial intelligence being weaponized to create sexualized imagery without consent.
Rising Concerns About AI-Generated Abuse
The charges come as law enforcement has documented multiple cases involving minors creating explicit AI images. In March, two teenage boys in Pennsylvania received probation for generating explicit artificial images of classmates at a private school.
Earlier this year, three teenagers in Tennessee sued Elon Musk’s xAI company, claiming its Grok tool converted their legitimate photographs into sexually explicit deepfakes. These cases have prompted lawmakers to treat the issue as a priority.
Legislative Response and Support
President Trump signed the bipartisan Take It Down Act last year, establishing tougher criminal penalties for distributing non-consensual intimate images and AI-generated deepfakes. Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz and Minnesota Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar co-sponsored the measure.
“This is a major victory for victims of online abuse,” Klobuchar said in a statement, adding the law gives people “legal protections and tools for when their intimate images, including deepfakes, are shared without their consent.” She emphasized the legislation represents “a landmark move towards establishing common-sense rules of the road around social media and AI.”
The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a tech industry-backed think tank, called the law “an important step forward that will help people pursue justice when they are victims of non-consensual intimate imagery.”