A bill criminalizing the use of AI tools built to produce child sexual abuse materials is expected to be introduced to Congress.
Kate Cheney, an independent lawmaker who will introduce the bill, says urgent issues cannot wait for the government's wider response to artificial intelligence.
While it is a crime to own or share child abuse material, there is no criminal ban on downloading or distributing a wave of emerging AI generators designed to produce illegal material.
The tool is now accessible online, with millions of the most popular visits.
Their spreads divert police resources and allow them to create material offline in hard-to-track locations.
Kate Cheney says the holes in Australian law that put children at risk must be urgently blocked. (ABC News: Keene Burke))
A roundtable was convened last week to encourage Ms Chaney's bill to address the issue by recommending prompt action to make the tools illegal.
“[This] I don't know why it's obviously urgent and we need to wait to deal with this very important and very surprising issue,” Cheney said.
“I recognize the challenges of regulating AI. Technology is changing so fast, it's hard to come up with a viable definition of AI – but while working on that holistic approach, existing laws can be plugged in to continue building trust with AI.”
Cheney said she met with Attorney General Michelle Roland.
The tool will enable “on-demand, unlimited” abuse material, Chaney warns
Curtin's bill MP will use the Carriage Services to create new offences to download, access, supply or promote technology designed to create child abuse material.
A new offense will also be created to scrape or distribute data for the purposes of training or creating these tools.
Crimes can have a maximum sentence of 15 years.
Public defense will be made available with express permission for law enforcement, intelligence reporting agencies and others to investigate child abuse cases.
“There are several reasons why this is necessary,” Cheney said.
“These tools allow for unlimited creation of this type of material on demand, meaning that perpetrators can train AI tools on images of specific children and generate material at the prompts in question.
“It also makes police work more challenging, yes. [getting] It is difficult to identify the real child who is the victim.
“And all AI abuse images start with pictures of real kids, so the kids get hurt somewhere along the way.”
Child safety experts say buildings will deal with “urgent” gaps
The federal government continues to develop responses to explosions in the use of AI tools.
It also recommends criminalizing the so-called “Nudify” app, as it has not yet addressed a major review of the online safety law passed on to the government last year.
Members of last week's Roundtable said there were no general benefits to consider in the case of these child abuse generators, and there was no reason to wait for an economic response to criminalize them.
Former police detective John Rouse, who participated in the roundtable, said Ms. Chaney's bill tackles an urgent legislative gap.
“Although existing Australian law provides for prosecution of child sexually abusive substance production, it has not yet addressed the use of AI in the production of such material,” Professor Rouse said.
John Rouse says that the generation is harming real children because AI abuse material is trained by real victims. (ABC News: Tobias Hunt))
Australia's chief of Mission Exploit Children, Colm Gannon, said AI tools have no place in society and there is a strong consensus that Ms Cheney's bill is “a clear and targeted step to fill the urgent gap.”
In a statement, Attorney General Michelle Roland said the government's top priority is “to keep us at our most vulnerable safety.”
“As Attorney General, I am completely committed to combating sexual exploitation and abuse of children in all environments, including online, and the government has a robust legislative framework to support this,” Roland said.
“Keeping young people safe from new harm is beyond politics, and the government will carefully consider proposals aimed at strengthening our response to child sexual exploitation and abuse.”
Cheney said regulating AI must be a priority for the government this term.
“This needs to be an urgent focus for this government and we need to regulate the AI space,” she said.
“As existing laws apply to AI, those gaps need to be plugged in.
“We also need a coordinated and holistic approach to help balance individual rights with productivity, global governance and trust in information and institutions.
“The challenge is that technology moves fast and governments don't move fast, so we need to go right, but we also need to plug in to see these gaps.
A study, founded last year by former industry minister Ed Fushik, recommended that the government take the strongest option when regulating AI by creating standalone laws that can adapt to rapidly changing technologies.
