Minnesota passes ban on fake AI nudes; app makers risk $500K fines

明尼苏达州通过禁令打击AI伪造裸照；应用开发者面临最高50万美元罚款

This week, Minnesota became the first state to pass a law banning nudification apps that make it easy to “undress” or sexualize images of real people. Under the law, developers of websites, apps, software, or other services designed to “nudify” images risk extensive damages, including punitive damages, if a victim decides to sue. Their offending products could also be blocked in the state. Additionally, Minnesota’s attorney general could impose fines up to $500,000 per fake AI nude flagged. Any fines collected would be used to fund services for victims of “sexual assault, general crime, domestic violence, and child abuse,” the law stipulates.

本周，明尼苏达州成为全美首个通过法律禁止“脱衣”类应用程序的州。这类应用可以轻易地将真实人物的照片进行“脱衣”处理或色情化。根据该法律，如果受害者决定起诉，设计用于“脱衣”图像的网站、应用程序、软件或其他服务的开发者将面临巨额赔偿，包括惩罚性赔偿。其违规产品也可能在该州被封禁。此外，明尼苏达州总检察长可对每一张被标记的AI伪造裸照处以最高50万美元的罚款。法律规定，所收取的任何罚款将用于资助“性侵犯、一般犯罪、家庭暴力和虐待儿童”受害者的服务项目。

On Wednesday, the Minnesota Senate unanimously voted 65–0 to pass the law. That vote came after the bill just as quickly passed in the House last week, the 19th News reported. Gov. Tim Walz is expected to sign the law when it reaches his desk, and if that happens, the state will start enforcing the ban this August. Ars could not immediately reach Walz’s office for comment.

据《19th News》报道，周三，明尼苏达州参议院以65票对0票的一致投票结果通过了该法案。此前，该法案已于上周在众议院迅速获得通过。预计州长蒂姆·沃尔兹（Tim Walz）在收到法案后将签署生效，如果签署，该州将于今年8月开始执行这项禁令。Ars未能立即联系到沃尔兹办公室置评。

Minnesota man used one app to undress 80+ friends

明尼苏达州男子利用某应用对80多名好友进行“脱衣”处理

Democratic Senator Erin Maye Quade introduced the bill in Minnesota after residents discovered that one man had nudified images of more than 80 women from his social circles. In a statement, she said that she looked forward to Walz signing the bill, which finally offers legal recourse to those victims, as well as others impacted by the mainstreaming of nudifying apps.

民主党参议员艾琳·梅·奎德（Erin Maye Quade）在明尼苏达州提出该法案，起因是当地居民发现一名男子利用应用对社交圈内的80多名女性进行了“脱衣”处理。她在声明中表示，期待沃尔兹签署该法案，因为这终于为这些受害者以及其他受“脱衣”应用普及化影响的人们提供了法律救济途径。

RAINN, the national nonprofit that runs the National Sexual Assault Hotline, also helped get Minnesota’s bill passed. To prevent any industry lobbying against it, RAINN consulted with tech companies when drafting the law, 19th News reported. That helped ensure there weren’t unexpected impacts on popular commercial products, like Photoshop, that could be used to nudify an image. Acknowledging that the state’s concern is more about how alarmingly easy undressing apps make it to harm an increasing number of mostly women and children globally, the law exempts products or services that require “the technical skill of a user to nudify an image or video.”

运营全国性侵犯热线的非营利组织RAINN也协助推动了明尼苏达州法案的通过。据《19th News》报道，为防止行业游说阻挠，RAINN在起草法律时咨询了科技公司。这有助于确保法案不会对Photoshop等可能被用于处理图像的流行商业产品产生意外影响。考虑到该州主要关注的是“脱衣”应用在全球范围内极其轻易地伤害了越来越多的女性和儿童，该法律豁免了那些需要“用户具备技术能力才能对图像或视频进行脱衣处理”的产品或服务。

“Today, we led the nation protecting women, children, and everyone in public life from the harm caused by AI nudification technology,” Maye Quade said. “Companies that make this technology available for free online and in app stores will no longer be allowed to enable predators who abuse and victimize adults and children with the click of a button.”

“今天，我们走在全国前列，保护妇女、儿童以及公众生活中的每一个人免受AI‘脱衣’技术带来的伤害，”梅·奎德说道。“那些在网上和应用商店免费提供此类技术的公司，将不再被允许为那些只需点击按钮就能虐待和伤害成人及儿童的掠夺者提供便利。”

Celebrating the law’s passage, Maye Quade thanked “the victim-survivors who made this bill a reality.” “They have shared their story in committee, with reporters, and with law enforcement with dignity and courage,” she said. “Their power, brilliance, and advocacy is why we passed this bill today. They have had a singular focus on passing this legislation so that what happened to them does not happen to any Minnesotan, ever again.”

在庆祝法案通过时，梅·奎德感谢了“使该法案成为现实的受害者幸存者们”。她说：“她们以尊严和勇气在委员会、媒体和执法部门面前分享了自己的故事。她们的力量、智慧和倡导是我们今天通过这项法案的原因。她们一心一意推动立法，就是为了确保她们所经历的事情永远不会再发生在任何明尼苏达人身上。”

A lengthy CNBC report last September exposed how a group of Minnesota friends first learned that a mutual friend was creating fake nudes of dozens of women. The man apologized, but he seemingly did not help identify all the victims. There was no evidence he ever shared the images, so laws like the Take It Down Act did not apply, and proving the man’s ill intent made pursuing penalties under revenge porn laws unlikely, 19th News reported. Horrified that there was no way to ensure the images hadn’t left his computer and no path to stop the man from continuing to generate fake nudes, the women joined Maye Quade in advancing the law to shut down the problem at its source.

去年9月，CNBC的一篇长篇报道揭露了一群明尼苏达州的朋友如何发现一名共同好友正在制作数十名女性的伪造裸照。该男子虽然道歉，但似乎并未协助确认所有受害者。据《19th News》报道，由于没有证据表明他分享过这些图片，因此《删除法案》（Take It Down Act）等法律并不适用，且要证明该男子的恶意以根据“复仇色情”法律进行处罚也十分困难。这些女性感到恐惧，因为无法确保图片未流出其电脑，也无法阻止该男子继续生成伪造裸照，于是她们联合梅·奎德推动立法，从源头上解决这一问题。

One of the Minnesota women targeted, Molly Kelley, told 19th News that she dedicated two years of her life to “finding a solution to mitigate the harm when it’s actually caused, which is at creation.” “These images don’t exist without a third-party involvement and some sort of machine learning model,” Kelley said.

受害的明尼苏达州女性之一莫莉·凯利（Molly Kelley）告诉《19th News》，她花了两年时间“寻找一种解决方案，以减轻在伤害发生时——即创作阶段——的危害”。凯利说：“如果没有第三方的参与和某种机器学习模型，这些图像根本就不会存在。”

However, even if Walz signs the law, tensions remain that could frustrate enforcement. Kelley told 19th News that she’s confident the law can overcome legal challenges, should any US firms sue to block it, but enforcing the law against app makers in other countries will likely be difficult, if not impossible, for a single state. Notably, the service used to attack the Minnesota women, DeepSwap, is operated overseas, at times claiming bases in Hong Kong and Dublin, CNBC reported. Anticipated state struggles to regulate foreign apps is why a federal ban would be preferable, 19th News reported. Additionally, if Donald Trump revives an effort to deregulate the AI industry by blocking state laws like Minnesota’s from requiring safeguards, the law could become toothless, advocates fear.

然而，即使沃尔兹签署了该法案，仍存在可能阻碍执行的紧张因素。凯利告诉《19th News》，她相信如果美国公司起诉阻止该法案，它能够经受住法律挑战，但对于一个州来说，针对其他国家的应用开发者执行该法律可能非常困难，甚至是不可能的。值得注意的是，据CNBC报道，用于攻击这些明尼苏达州女性的服务DeepSwap是在海外运营的，有时声称其基地位于香港和都柏林。《19th News》报道称，各州在监管外国应用方面预期的困难，正是联邦层面禁令更为可取的原因。此外，倡导者们担心，如果唐纳德·特朗普重启AI行业去监管化努力，通过阻止像明尼苏达州这样要求设置安全保障的州法律，该法案可能会变得名存实亡。

Unchecked US tools like Grok risk penalties

未受监管的美国工具（如Grok）面临处罚风险

If Walz puts the law on the books, some US firms could be forced to make changes or face penalties. Potentially even Elon Musk’s xAI may risk fines if Minnesotans can prove Grok was used to undress images without consent. Grok’s lack of safeguards to prevent outputs with non-consensual intimate imagery or alleged child sex abuse materials has drawn government probes and proposed class actions from women and children. In January, X Safety claimed that Grok was updated to stop undressing images, but NBC News reported last month that their review found “dozens of AI-generated sexual images and videos depicting real people posted publicly on Musk’s social media app, X, over the past month.”

如果沃尔兹将该法案签署为法律，一些美国公司可能被迫做出改变，否则将面临处罚。如果明尼苏达州人能证明Grok被用于在未经同意的情况下对图像进行“脱衣”处理，甚至埃隆·马斯克的xAI也可能面临罚款。Grok缺乏防止输出非自愿亲密图像或涉嫌儿童性虐待材料的安全保障，已引发政府调查以及来自妇女和儿童的集体诉讼提议。今年1月，X安全部门声称Grok已更新以停止生成“脱衣”图像，但NBC新闻上个月报道称，他们的审查发现“过去一个月里，马斯克的社交媒体应用X上公开张贴了数十张描绘真实人物的AI生成的色情图片和视频。”

Musk has denied that he has seen a single instance of Grok-generated CSAM. But researchers’ estimates that Grok was generating thousands of harmful images an hour appear to be increasingly backed by lawsuits from victims surfacing non-consensual images. At the same time, authorities are getting closer to closing cases with arrests linked to Grok. A week after NBC News’ report, Nashville cops charged a man for “sexual exploitation of a minor.”

马斯克否认他见过任何Grok生成的儿童性虐待材料（CSAM）。但研究人员估计Grok每小时生成数千张有害图像，这一说法似乎正越来越多地得到受害者因非自愿图像而提起的诉讼的支持。与此同时，当局在处理与Grok有关的案件并进行逮捕方面正取得进展。在NBC新闻报道一周后，纳什维尔警方以“性剥削未成年人”罪名起诉了一名男子。