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PRINTER'S NO. 405
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA
HOUSE BILL
No. 431
Session of
2025
INTRODUCED BY MERSKI, PIELLI, SANCHEZ, HILL-EVANS, DONAHUE,
SCHLOSSBERG, HARKINS, SHUSTERMAN AND GREEN, JANUARY 31, 2025
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON COMMUNICATIONS AND TECHNOLOGY,
JANUARY 31, 2025
AN ACT
Amending Title 18 (Crimes and Offenses) of the Pennsylvania
Consolidated Statutes, in forgery and fraudulent practices,
providing for the offense of unauthorized dissemination of
artificially generated impersonation of individual.
The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
hereby enacts as follows:
Section 1. Title 18 of the Pennsylvania Consolidated
Statutes is amended by adding a section to read:
§ 4122. Unauthorized dissemination of artificially generated
impersonation of individual.
(a) Offense defined.--A person is guilty of unauthorized
dissemination of an artificially generated impersonation of an
individual if, with knowledge or reason to know or believe that
the impersonation was artificially generated, the person
disseminates an artificially generated impersonation of an
individual without the consent of the individual.
(b) Grading.--An offense under subsection (a) is:
(1) a misdemeanor of the first degree; or
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(2) a felony of the third degree, if committed with the
intent to defraud or injure another person.
(c) Defense.--It is a defense to a prosecution under
subsection (b)(1) that the person disseminated the artificially
generated impersonation with the consent of the individual
depicted.
(d) Applicability.--A person may be convicted under this
section if the victim or the offender is located within this
Commonwealth.
(e) Construction.--Nothing in this section shall be
construed to apply to a law enforcement officer engaged in the
performance of the law enforcement officer's official duties.
(f) Definitions.--As used in this section, the following
words and phrases shall have the meanings given to them in this
subsection unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:
"Artificial intelligence." Includes any of the following:
(1) An artificial system that performs tasks under
varying and unpredictable circumstances without significant
human oversight or that can learn from experience and improve
performance when exposed to data sets.
(2) An artificial system developed in computer software,
physical hardware or other context that solves tasks
requiring human-like perception, cognition, planning,
learning, communication or physical action.
(3) An artificial system designed to think or act like a
human, including cognitive architectures and neural networks.
(4) A set of techniques, including machine learning,
that is designed to approximate a cognitive task.
(5) An artificial system designed to act rationally,
including an intelligent software agent or embodied robot
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that achieves goals using perception, planning, reasoning,
learning, communicating, decision making and acting.
"Artificially generated impersonation." A visual image that
appears to show or represent an individual or an auditory
vocalization that appears to resemble or represent an
individual's voice that did not occur in reality and the
production of which image or vocalization was substantially
dependent upon technical means, including artificial
intelligence or computer software, rather than the ability of an
individual to physically mimic another individual.
Section 2. This act shall take effect in 90 days.
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