Washington House Bill 1999

• Authority: Washington
• Parent authority: State governments
• Jurisdiction: United States
• Collections: U.S. state and local documents
• Most recent activity: Enacted
• Most recent activity date: 2024-03-14

Risk subdomain coverage

Good coverage — Comprehensive governance measures or mitigations with clear procedures relating to the risk subdomain are explicitly described.

• Exposure to toxic content
• Compromise of privacy
• False or misleading information
• Fraud, scams, and targeted manipulation

Minimal coverage — Brief mention but no specific mitigations, recommendations or governance measures relating to the risk subdomain are described.

• Disinformation, surveillance, and influence at scale
• AI possessing dangerous capabilities

All other risk subdomains had no coverage in this document.

Risk Coverage Summary

The document primarily addresses risks related to malicious actors (4.1, 4.3), privacy compromise (2.1), toxic content exposure (1.2), and misinformation (3.1). It focuses on preventing AI-generated fabricated intimate images from being used for harassment, fraud, and manipulation, with strong coverage of privacy violations and harmful content creation.

Sector coverage

Minimal coverage — Brief mention but no specific mitigations, recommendations or governance measures relating to the sector are described.

• Information
• Health Care & Social Assistance
• Public Administration (excl. National Security)

All other sectors had no coverage in this document.

Sectors Summary

This legislation does not target specific economic sectors but rather governs the conduct of any person or entity that creates or discloses fabricated intimate images using AI. It explicitly exempts certain information and telecommunications service providers from liability, indicating these sectors are within scope but protected. The law applies broadly across all sectors where such harmful content might be created or distributed.

Legislative Status

Hard Law

Legislative Status Summary

This is a binding legislative act enacted by the Washington State Legislature that creates criminal offenses, establishes civil causes of action, prescribes penalties including gross misdemeanors and class C felonies, and provides enforcement mechanisms through courts and law enforcement.

Actors

Proposer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: Legislature of the State of Washington
• Summary: The document is explicitly enacted by the Legislature of the State of Washington, as stated in the opening clause of the bill.

Target

• Entity Types: AI_Developer, AI_User, Affected_Stakeholder
• Summary: The law targets multiple categories: (1) AI developers and users who create or use AI to generate fabricated intimate images ('Digitization includes, but is not limited to, creation or alteration of any visual or printed matter by using artificial intelligence'); (2) Any person who discloses such images; (3) Interactive computer services, mobile telecommunications providers, and telecommunications networks are explicitly exempted from liability, indicating they are within scope but protected; (4) Affected stakeholders include depicted individuals (victims) who have causes of action.

Enforcer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: law enforcement agencies; courts; prosecuting attorney; superior court
• Summary: The document establishes enforcement through criminal prosecution by prosecuting attorneys and law enforcement agencies, as well as through civil court proceedings. Courts have authority to order forfeiture, sealing, and destruction of images, and to award damages and injunctive relief.

Monitor

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: clerk of the court; law enforcement agency
• Summary: The document establishes monitoring and custody responsibilities for law enforcement agencies and court clerks, who must maintain, track, and eventually destroy fabricated intimate images used as evidence. The clerk must verify with prosecuting attorneys before destruction and maintain secure storage.

AI Lifecycle Stages

Lifecycle stages covered by the documents, as defined in the OECD Framework for the Classification of AI Systems

• Build and Use Model
• Deploy
• Operate and Monitor

AI Lifecycle Summary

The document does not focus on specific AI development lifecycle stages but rather on the deployment and use of AI-generated content (fabricated intimate images). It addresses the output and consequences of AI systems after they have been built and deployed, focusing on the harmful use of AI-generated images rather than their development process.

Technical Scope

Terms relating to technical scope that are mentioned or implicitly referenced in the document

• Generative AI

Technical Scope Summary

The document explicitly mentions AI and artificial intelligence in the context of creating or altering images (digitization). It does not specifically mention AI models, AI systems, frontier AI, general purpose AI, task-specific AI, foundation models, generative AI, predictive AI, open-weight models, or compute thresholds. The focus is on the output (fabricated images) rather than the technical characteristics of the AI systems that create them.