N.J. attorney general joins bipartisan push to curb deepfake abuse, warns AI firms over child safety
TRENTON, N.J. — New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin has joined a bipartisan coalition of 47 state attorneys general calling on major search engines and payment platforms to take stronger action against the spread of computer-generated deepfake nonconsensual intimate imagery, or NCII.
In addition, New Jersey signed a bipartisan letter this week warning social media and artificial intelligence companies that they will be held accountable if their platforms expose children to AI chatbots engaging in sexual or predatory behavior.
“The spread of deepfakes creates new avenues for abuse that must be halted. Sexual imagery shared without consent—often referred to as revenge porn—is devastating, no matter how it originated,” Platkin said. “Similarly, using AI technology to engage children in sexually explicit conversations is unconscionable and inexcusable. I won’t let technology firms abuse New Jersey residents.”
The attorneys general’s letter to Google, Microsoft Bing and Yahoo! outlines concerns that search engines have failed to curb deepfake production and calls for safeguards such as user warnings and redirects away from harmful content. A separate letter to Visa, Mastercard, American Express, PayPal, Google Pay and Apple Pay urges the platforms to block sellers tied to deepfake NCII.
Officials noted that search engines already restrict content related to explosives or suicide methods and urged similar steps for terms such as “deepfake porn” or “nudify apps.” They also called on payment platforms to cut off financial support for sellers of such content.
Separately, New Jersey joined 44 other states Monday in warning AI and social media companies after revelations from internal Meta documents that the company authorized its AI assistants to “flirt and engage in romantic roleplay with children” as young as eight.
The attorneys general wrote: “Conduct that would be inappropriate if done by humans is not excusable simply because it is done by a machine.”
The coalition addressing deepfake pornography was led by Vermont and co-sponsored by New Jersey, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Utah. Other signatories include nearly every state and several U.S. territories.
