The people's voice of reason
The people's voice of reason
State Representative Ben Harrison
January 21, 2026 – MONTGOMERY - State Representative Ben Harrison (R-Elkmont) held a press conference to announce that he has introduced legislation that would allow authorities to hold A.I. companies accountable if they assist or encourage people to make non-consensual pornography in Alabama. This has already happened to people in Alabama.
Americans' appetites for porn appears to be virtually unlimited. Models willing to do porn however – especially for little or no pay – are limiting factors for would be porn creators. They are getting around that by taking the images of real people and using artificial intelligence to graft that person's face onto A.I. generated imagery for the creator's own entertainment or more commonly to ruin the reputation of real-world people. This is really not that complicated given the growing sophistication of A.I. powered image generators.
On platforms like Grok AI, users can upload innocent photos-often pulled from social media-and transform them into explicit images that appear very real – especially when shared on I-phone or Android. Even though the images are fabricated, the emotional, reputational, and psychological damage to the victims is very real.
The victims can be high school cheerleaders, the boys on the baseball team, a teacher, or the neighbor's kids anybody can become an unknowing victim of this identity theft. This has already happened to people in Alabama and the Legislature has already made it a crime to do. Harrison's legislation goes a step further, by making the A.I. company who intentionally assists amateur porn creators in this form of identity theft porn creation.
The bill has not been formally introduced yet, as negotiations are underway on exactly how it will be worded. The legislation provides for civil actions and potentially even criminal penalties.
Harrison addressed the concerns that a company that innocently provides a general purpose A.I. could potentially be held responsible if some evil miscreant uses their product in a criminal way without their knowledge.
"A company selling a general-purpose phone photo editor remains protected," Harrison stated.
A company that hosts a lot of websites from content creators – even if some of it is illicit – would also be protected explained Harrison. The bill is focused on software developers who intentionally design, promote, or optimize AI systems to create sexualized images of identifiable people. This includes providing prompt guidance that encourages illegal content or building models specifically tailored for explicit image generation.
"A company selling a general-purpose phone photo editor remains protected," said Harrison however, "A company selling or promoting an AI system as a way to create sexualized images of identifiable people, providing prompt guidance to obtain illegal content or optimizing models to do so would not be protected."
Harrison said that the bill will subject offending companies to the bill's civil remedies and enforcement provisions, but only by the Alabama Attorney General. District attorneys and individual citizens who believe that they have been victimized will not be able to file their own civil actions as the bill was explained to reporters.
Harrison was joined by members of law enforcement, faith leaders, and U.S. Senate candidate Jared Hudson.
Hudson said that the image of the pervert with the candy truck driving to neighborhoods to lure children away still happens, but most child predators use the internet to find their victims.
"As the founder of Covenant Rescue Group, I've seen firsthand how child exploitation actually happens and most of the time, it starts online," said Hudson. Predators use gaming platforms, social media, and even AI chat tools to find and groom kids, and Big Tech knows it."
Hudson said that this legislation would hold these companies accountable and affect their bottom line – the only way that you can get their attention. Hudson explained how predators will create these videos and then use it to blackmail the child or teen into illicit activities.
Dr. Randy Brinson with the Alabama Christian Coalition spoke in favor of Harrison's legislation.
"We have to protect our children and our families from this kind of exploitation," said Brinson.
The bill is expected to be introduced on Tuesday, January 27.
Tuesday will be day 7 of the 2026 regular legislative session.
To comment or to ask a question email: brandonmreporter@gmail.com
Reader Comments(0)