HB 431 — 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.

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
 1   Amending Title 18 (Crimes and Offenses) of the Pennsylvania
 2      Consolidated Statutes, in forgery and fraudulent practices,
 3      providing for the offense of unauthorized dissemination of
 4      artificially generated impersonation of individual.
 5      The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
 6   hereby enacts as follows:
 7      Section 1.      Title 18 of the Pennsylvania Consolidated
 8   Statutes is amended by adding a section to read:
 9   § 4122.    Unauthorized dissemination of artificially generated
10                   impersonation of individual.
11      (a)    Offense defined.--A person is guilty of unauthorized
12   dissemination of an artificially generated impersonation of an
13   individual if, with knowledge or reason to know or believe that
14   the impersonation was artificially generated, the person
15   disseminates an artificially generated impersonation of an
16   individual without the consent of the individual.
17      (b)    Grading.--An offense under subsection (a) is:
18             (1)   a misdemeanor of the first degree; or
 1            (2)   a felony of the third degree, if committed with the
 2      intent to defraud or injure another person.
 3      (c)   Defense.--It is a defense to a prosecution under
 4   subsection (b)(1) that the person disseminated the artificially
 5   generated impersonation with the consent of the individual
 6   depicted.
 7      (d)   Applicability.--A person may be convicted under this
 8   section if the victim or the offender is located within this
 9   Commonwealth.
10      (e)   Construction.--Nothing in this section shall be
11   construed to apply to a law enforcement officer engaged in the
12   performance of the law enforcement officer's official duties.
13      (f)   Definitions.--As used in this section, the following
14   words and phrases shall have the meanings given to them in this
15   subsection unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:
16      "Artificial intelligence."    Includes any of the following:
17            (1)   An artificial system that performs tasks under
18      varying and unpredictable circumstances without significant
19      human oversight or that can learn from experience and improve
20      performance when exposed to data sets.
21            (2)   An artificial system developed in computer software,
22      physical hardware or other context that solves tasks
23      requiring human-like perception, cognition, planning,
24      learning, communication or physical action.
25            (3)   An artificial system designed to think or act like a
26      human, including cognitive architectures and neural networks.
27            (4)   A set of techniques, including machine learning,
28      that is designed to approximate a cognitive task.
29            (5)   An artificial system designed to act rationally,
30      including an intelligent software agent or embodied robot

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 1      that achieves goals using perception, planning, reasoning,
 2      learning, communicating, decision making and acting.
 3      "Artificially generated impersonation."   A visual image that
 4   appears to show or represent an individual or an auditory
 5   vocalization that appears to resemble or represent an
 6   individual's voice that did not occur in reality and the
 7   production of which image or vocalization was substantially
 8   dependent upon technical means, including artificial
 9   intelligence or computer software, rather than the ability of an
10   individual to physically mimic another individual.
11      Section 2.   This act shall take effect in 90 days.




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