DV Journal

“AI is the new steel,” said Joanna Doven, executive director of the AI Strike Team, a regional group to promote artificial intelligence.

Doven spoke to a joint Republican state Senate and House policy committee hearing. “We grew economies throughout Pennsylvania by producing the steel that defeated tyranny. Now we must build the AI that does the same,” she said.

Doven was among several experts who spoke about the potential of companies that develop and deploy artificial intelligence (AI) to boost the commonwealth’s economy and bring jobs here.

“Pennsylvania has a remarkable opportunity to leverage cutting-edge developments in artificial intelligence to spur investment and revolutionize our economy,” said Sen. Tracy Pennycuick (R-Montgomery) who chairs the Senate Communications and Technology Committee. “Today’s hearing will help shape the General Assembly’s approach as we look to promote, expand, and strategically harness AI technology for the benefit of our entire commonwealth.”

Doven said AI is booming in the American heartland, but not so much on the East Coast. For example, Tulsa, Okla., saw $1 billion in new annual tax revenue from a drone company. And new data centers brought Columbus, Ohio, $191 million in local and state tax revenue, up 43 percent from the previous year.

Dr. Hooman Rashidi, executive director of the Computational Pathology and AI Center of Excellence (CPACE) and Associate Dean of AI in Medicine for the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, spoke of how AI will improve healthcare through faster diagnosis, improved access in rural areas, and enhancing “interdisciplinary decision making in tumor boards and other collaborative care settings.”

Among other things, he recommended AI education programs for healthcare workers, developing and investing in AI tools that reduce paperwork, and improving diagnostic accuracy and results for patients.

Dr. Andrew Horchler, chief research officer of Astrobotic Technology, Inc., detailed how AI is becoming essential to deep space exploration, noting that it “empowers spacecraft, landers, and rovers to perform autonomously, efficiently, and safely in remote and extreme environments” and is essential to real-time decision-making, hazard avoidance, and data prioritization. The public hearing was hosted at Astrobotic’s headquarters.

Bruno Abreu, Ph.D., deputy scientific director for the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, said researchers at the University of Pittsburgh use AI to prevent buckling or breaks in railways, improving safety.

Abreu said that includes “key systems that unlocked AI research and applications.”

“Investments in cyberinfrastructure designed to handle these large-scale scientific computing and AI workloads will give Pennsylvania a significant competitive advantage by enabling leading-edge innovation, supporting advanced research, and enhancing collaboration, all critical factors for staying ahead in a competitive landscape,” he said.

Pennsylvania needs more energy for data centers to power AI, said Doven. Another issue is the slow permitting process in Pennsylvania compared with other states.

“In southwestern Pennsylvania, they have .97 megawatts of data centers but are second in the amount of natural gas in the country,” said Doven. But the Homer City plant that’s coming online in two years will improve things. The Pittsburgh region received $1.87 billion in venture capital investment last year.

“We need immediate policies (to encourage) companies getting that venture capital, from Silicon Valley, to stay here, thicken, and grow” said Doven. “We need to encourage them to stay here.”

The area is eighth in AI patents, she said.  The Pittsburgh region has the third-highest AI-trained workforce behind Boston and Silicon Valley, she said.

Pennycuick is concerned that “our energy policy is going to hold us back.”

“We do not have a strategic energy plan in Pennsylvania and I hope this is an eye-opener for all of us to get together and figure that out.  I’m a huge supporter of portable nuclear reactors.  And I think nuclear is the way to go with these data centers. And, we’ve got all this natural gas. We need to jump in, both feet, and take the plunge and just get it done.”

Rep. David Rowe (R-Snyder) said Doven’s testimony shows that the state needs power, fiber and “permitting ready to go.”

“We are losing the power war to China,” said Rowe. “Not a single gas project has started since 2019. Gov. Wolf and Gov. Shapiro brought the sword of Damocles, that is the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), that is a billion-dollar energy tax into the picture. By contrast, China grew almost 100 gigawatts in thermal energy development last year alone…We’re losing that energy race despite the fact that we (are) the second largest natural gas producing state in the nation.”

On the permitting side, Rowe said, “Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R-Ark.) famously said, ‘We will have you open for business before Pennsylvania even gives you a permit for construction.’ And he was right. That $3 billion steel mill is now open in Arkansas and not here in Pennsylvania.”

In his district, a small business wants to fix a cracked drainpipe to keep its basement from flooding. Regulators “strung them along” for two years, he said.

Sen. Dave Argall (R-Carbon), who chairs the policy committee, said, “Artificial intelligence is the future. Today’s testimony from the experts at the forefront of this emerging industry is crucial as we prepare Pennsylvania to effectively harness this world-changing technology.”

President Trump wants to Make Coal Great Again, and that could be good news for America’s high-tech industry.

Most of the debate over coal-generated power focuses on climate, but it also affects the global technology and trade environment.

On April 8, Trump signed four executive orders aimed at bolstering the U.S. coal industry, which was targeted by Biden administration regulators. These orders directed all federal departments and agencies to eliminate policies that “discriminate” against the coal industry and accelerate permitting and funding for coal-related projects.

“Pound for pound, coal is the single most reliable, durable, secure and powerful form of energy,” Trump said at a White House event featuring coal miners. “It’s cheap, incredibly efficient, high density, and it’s almost indestructible.”

Pennsylvania is the third-largest coal-producing state (behind Wyoming and West Virginia) and is the fifth-largest coal exporter to foreign markets, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

In 2022, Pennsylvania’s coal mining industry generated approximately $3.8 billion in total economic output, funding 11,547 full-time jobs.

In his administrative orders, Trump pushed back on what he sees as overreach by blue states trying to use local laws to limit federal power to set energy policy. Perhaps most significantly, Trump directed the Department of Energy to assess how coal-fired power plants can meet growing electricity demands, particularly for AI data centers. It also instructs the DOE to develop a process within 90 days for issuing emergency orders to keep coal plants operational in areas with potential grid reliability issues.

The fight over who will dominate in the development of artificial intelligence is the most critical geopolitical battle facing America, experts say, and the top competitor is China. Winning that fight will require massive amounts of electricity.

“We are talking about from AI and data centers alone as much as 80 gigawatts in new electricity demand in just the next five years,” said Conor Bernstein with the National Mining Association. “That is the equivalent of the power demand needed for 60 million homes.”

Lanny Nickell of Southwest Power Pool raised similar concerns before a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing, telling Congress his group is “forecasting peak demand to be as much as 50 percent higher over the next 10 years, mostly driven by the AI data center boom.”

While the United States has restricted the development of base-load power generation from coal, in 2024, China commissioned 55.3 gigawatts of additional coal-fired power capacity, according to data from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air and Global Energy Monitor.

There’s another Trump policy at play, Bernstein added, and that’s the push to bring more manufacturing capacity back to the United States. Those factories and facilities will need electricity, adding to the demand already rising faster than the supply.

“It’s simply not realistic to keep coal out of the mix,” said Michelle Bloodworth, the president and CEO of America’s Power.

“There’s not really another resource to replace coal that has the attributes … during periods of extreme weather like the bomb cyclones and the recent polar vortex where coal and natural gas provided 86 percent of the nation’s electricity when we needed it the most, during the day and the week in which electricity demand peaked,” Bloodworth said.

Environmental groups are pushing back. The Sierra Club claims that Trump’s orders would drive up electricity prices and increase pollution. “Choking on coal and gas plant pollution is not the American Dream,” it said.

Bonner Cohen, with the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, disagrees. He said that “nothing drives up utility bills like being dependent on intermittent — which is a polite term for unreliable — energy like wind and solar.”

Experts say that America’s AI industry cannot rely on intermittent power. Because wind and solar rely on the environment to operate — the wind must be blowing and the sun shining — they must be backed up by reliable sources like coal.

Bjorn Lomborg, the president of the Copenhagen Consensus and a visiting fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, points out the problem.

“In the last 10 years, solar and wind power use has reached unprecedented levels. However, this increase hasn’t led to a reduction in fossil fuel consumption. In fact, fossil fuel use has grown during this period.

“Numerous studies show that adding renewable energy adds to energy consumption instead of replacing coal, gas or oil. Recent research reveals that for every six units of new green energy, less than one unit displaces fossil fuels.”

“The important thing here is that we can have coal, natural gas and nuclear power spearheading our nation’s energy,” Cohen said. “Because the artificial intelligence game is a game the United States cannot allow China to win, we must have as much of our industrial policy driven by artificial intelligence as possible.”

(From a press release)

Attorney General Dave Sunday announced charges against a York County man regarding possession of more than two dozen files of artificially-generated child sexual abuse material — the first time the Office of Attorney General has filed the charge since it was passed into law in 2024.

Luke A. Teipel, 22, of Dallastown, is charged with 33 felony counts of possession of child sexual abuse material, including the artificially-generated images, and one count of criminal use of a communication facility.

Teipel was recently arraigned and bail was set at $25,000 unsecured. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for April 24.

“This proactive investigation uncovered a defendant weaponizing modern technology to victimize and harm children,” Attorney General Sunday said. “Due to the bipartisan leadership of Senators Tracy Pennycuik and Lisa Boscola, we now have a law on the books that enables the filing of serious felony charges in AI cases that we previously could not prosecute. These charges are just a first step in using this new law to protect our communities and our children.”

“As sponsor of this legislation and Chair of the Senate Communications and Technology Committee, I’m pleased to see this law being successfully utilized by the Attorney General’s office to bring those who would harm children to justice,” said Sen. Tracy Pennycuick (R-Montgomery). “The law now makes it illegal to share intimate images of children and adults without consent addressing the use of AI technology for this purpose. In addition, it prohibits AI from being utilized to generate child sexual abuse material. I applaud AG Sunday for combating “deepfake” images of minors and child sexual abuse materials generated by AI and prosecuting those individuals who commit these heinous crimes.”

During the Office of Attorney General investigation, agents discovered numerous files of suspected child sexual abuse material that was traced back to a device owned by Teipel. During a search of Teipel’s home, agents recovered a cell phone in the kitchen, containing 29 files of alleged artificially-generated child sexual abuse material.

The investigation is ongoing into how the materials were created. Charges were also filed regarding non-artificial images found on the phone and a laptop computer at Teipel’s home.

Last year, the Office of Attorney General offered input on ACT 125, which updated prior laws to prohibit the use of artificial intelligence technology to create materials that appear to “authentically depict a child under 18” engaging in sexually abusive acts that did not occur in reality.

This case will be prosecuted by Senior Deputy Attorney General Janie Swinehart. Criminal charges, and any discussion thereof, are merely allegations and all defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.

The Big Tech boom is driving advancement through artificial intelligence, but it is also putting increasing demands on America’s electric grid. The result could be a “strange bedfellows” alliance between fossil fuel and green energy.

The issue is simple and obvious: Environmental advocates want to move America’s energy use from gasoline and heating oil to electricity to reduce carbon emissions. The more successful they are, the more electricity Americans need.

On top of that is the surge in electricity consumption by the data centers at the heart of the new AI economy.

A recent report from the Department of Energy estimates that energy usage for data centers tripled over the last decade, primarily due to increased server capacity for AI. That energy usage is expected to again triple by 2028. Data centers are critical to AI systems and domestic manufacturing, among other industries.

Now, energy analysts are raising concerns that the power draw required by data centers — especially the large facilities run by Facebook, Amazon, Google and other tech giants — will outpace U.S. electricity generation.

For years, advocates for coal and natural gas have argued that a reliable baseload of electricity is vital to the nation’s grid. Green energy proponents have pushed back, insisting that the future is with wind and solar power.

However, with data centers’ power consumption growing from 58 terawatt-hours in 2014 to an estimated 580 TWh by 2028 — 12 percent of all electricity generated — experts on America’s energy grid say the “either/or” moment has passed.

“AI data centers are multiplying across the U.S. and sucking up huge amounts of power,” Bloomberg in December. “New evidence shows they may also be distorting the normal flow of electricity for millions of Americans. While many facilities are popping up near major U.S. cities and adding stress to already fragile grid, this trend holds true in rural areas as well.”

The solution: More electricity. Unfortunately, policies backed by some green energy advocates have restricted the ability to generate power using fossil fuels. At the same time, increased wind and solar production have failed to keep up with demand.

Trisha Curtis, the president and CEO of PetroNerds, says it’s time to stop fighting and start producing. “In the U.S., we need more energy, so it’s really about building more power generation capacity,” she said. “Then you can argue politically about what you’re going to fuel it with. Coal and natural gas are energy-dense, reliable baseload power sources that are not intermittent,” she said.

Curtis said that the United States has “more than enough” natural gas, noting the challenge there is in building the infrastructure to move the gas to power plants.

Coal, too, has to be part of the domestic energy strategy.

“Stop decommissioning coal,” she said. “You dig it out of the ground, put it next to a power plant, and use it when you need it. Wind and solar aren’t going to cut it — there’s not a lot of power density.”

Last month, 21 congressional Republicans signed a letter urging their GOP colleagues to maintain green energy tax incentives.

“Countless American companies are utilizing sector-wide energy tax credits — many of which have enjoyed broad support in Congress — to make major investments in domestic energy production and infrastructure for traditional and renewable energy sources alike,” they wrote.

In 2024, wind and solar power generation surpassed coal production for the first time, according to a report by Ember, an energy think tank.

The Energy Information Agency reports natural gas consumption set new winter and summer monthly records last year — more proof that natural gas will remain a critical part of the nation’s energy economy.

In 2024, more than any other source, natural gas accounted for 43 percent of U.S. utility-scale electricity generation.

“Pennsylvania is the second largest natural gas producing state in the nation, and the largest exporter of electricity,” said Patrick Henderson, vice president of government affairs and communications for the Marcellus Shale Coalition.

“Pennsylvania literally helps keep the lights on for our neighboring states. Detrimental state policies, however, hinder our ability to maximize use of this clean, abundant and affordable resource, which is necessary to meet growing electricity demand at a time of historic power plant retirements.”

As the demand for power from AI data centers climbs, America’s grid operators are addressing the challenges.

For example, Indiana Michigan Power, part of American Electric Power, recently finalized a large load tariff settlement with Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Google and the Data Center Coalition that requires the companies to make significant, long-term financial commitments to ensure grid reliability and availability of electricity for commercial and residential ratepayers.

Meanwhile, some states are attempting to attract data centers — and the jobs and investments they bring. Indiana, for example, is pushing a robust energy plan that includes the development of nuclear power plants — the cleanest energy source available.

While artificial intelligence — at least of the narrow typology — had been slowly and quietly making its way into American society since early in the last decade, it was not until after Open AI publicly released its ChatGPT in November 2022 that the U.S. and state governments began to take explicit notice. With Donald Trump entering office on January 20, speculation on the AI technologies executive branch policy agenda for 2025 is worthy of discussion.

“When I’m re-elected,” candidate Trump said at a rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in December 2023, “I will cancel Biden’s artificial intelligence executive order and ban the use of AI to censor the speech of American citizens on day one.” 

This promise was also included in the 2024 GOP Party Platform under “Build the Greatest Economy in History.” Other Republican legislators have equated the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) AI Safety Institute’s (AISI) work on AI with censorship of conservative speech and attempting to steer AI technologies development with liberal notions about social harms — disinformation and bias — rather than focusing on physical safety-related harms to American consumers. 

In a letter to Jason Metheny, RAND Corp. president and CEO, regarding RAND’s role in drafting the Biden administration’s AI executive order, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, criticized NIST’s “woke AI ‘safety’ standards” as a “plan to control speech” based on “amorphous” social harms.

A coalition of 60 companies, including major AI companies such as Amazon, Google, IBM, and Microsoft; nonprofits, including the Information Technology Industry Council and Americans for Responsible Innovation; and universities, including Carnegie Mellon University and Drexel University, requested in a letter to congressional leaders that Congress enact legislation codifying the AISI before the end of 2024. However, this legislation was not passed. 

Among the letter’s signers are OpenAI and Anthropic. Both companies signed agreements with the AISI to collaborate on AI research, testing and evaluation.

During an AI summit in Seoul, South Korea, international leaders agreed in May to form a network of AI safety institutes in Australia, Canada, the European Union, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Trump has identified two members of his administration who will have AI policy responsibilities. The first member is David Sacks, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist who co-founded PayPal and, in 2024, launched Glue, an AI-powered work chat app designed to streamline workplace communications. Trump appointed Sacks as a special government employee who can serve up to 130 days a year without divesting or publicly disclosing his assets. Sacks will help guide public policy in AI and cryptocurrency. 

The second member is Sriram Krishnan, a former Andreessen Horowitz partner, as the senior policy adviser for artificial intelligence in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Sacks, who has ties to Silicon Valley figures Elon Musk and Peter Thiel, has been a vocal critic of what he describes as “Big Tech censorship” and excessive regulations on his podcast. Sacks’ approach to implementing AI technologies focuses on competition, a “free market” ideology that aligns with Trump’s broader de-regulatory agenda emphasizing reinvigorating U.S. dominance in emerging technologies. Policies under “AI and crypto czar” Sacks will favor an economic environment of innovation over regulation, emphasizing open-source AI development and reducing barriers for AI-focused startups. 

Likewise, Krishnan has expressed “the importance of redefining relationships between platforms and AI models,” arguing that the current model undermines innovation and fairness in the data ecosystem. He has advocated for decentralization in technology, describing it as a mechanism to empower users and break away from the controlled platform.

Sacks and Krishnan’s policy approaches align with Trump’s. Yet, at least initially, the administration will need to replace Biden’s executive order with a Trump executive order emphasizing the new administration’s policy approach to future AI development, including maintaining the AISI in the NIST, with the agency’s administrative charge refocused on physical safety standards — rather than social issues — regarding the implementation of AI technologies. 

There is a case for a permanent, refocused AISI (legislatively enacted by a Republican-controlled 119th Congress) that could have a positive economic effect on nurturing industry competition, addressing tangible safety issues, and supporting American competitiveness in the global economy.

What once seemed unthinkable can gradually become mainstream in the ever-evolving landscape of societal norms. This shift is articulated through a concept known as the Overton Window, a model for understanding how ideas in society change over time from unthinkable to popular and even policy. The journey of artificial intelligence from a fringe science-fiction fantasy to an integral part of our lives could well be the blueprint for how humanity will accept the existence and presence of extraterrestrials.

Not so long ago, the notion of machines that could learn, adapt and function like a human brain was relegated to the realms of Isaac Asimov novels and “Star Trek” episodes. Today, AI is a reality and a commonplace component of our world, influencing everything from the recommendations we receive on streaming services to critical financial and medical decisions. 

This acceptance wasn’t instantaneous. It followed a gradual path of normalization, moving stealthily through the stages of the Overton Window — from radical to acceptable to sensible. This transformation was facilitated by strategic incremental exposure and integration into everyday activities that slowly recalibrated public perception.

The journey toward normalizing extraterrestrials could follow a similar path. Consider how governments and the media might manage the transition from denial of any knowledge of extraterrestrial life to ambiguous acknowledgments, followed by a strategic release of information.

Initially, any suggestions of extraterrestrial existence are met with outright denial by authorities. As anecdotal evidence builds and public curiosity grows, the stance softens slightly to “no comment,” maintaining a veil of mystery while acknowledging the topic’s relevance. The next phase involves deferring the question to “higher authorities” or specialized agencies, perhaps set up explicitly to study unexplained phenomena. This buys time and provides an institutional buffer, lending credibility to the investigations and discussions surrounding extraterrestrial activities.

Behind closed doors, governments and international bodies might begin to acknowledge the reality among themselves and start preparing for broader public acceptance. This would involve preparing protocols for interaction and policies to manage extraterrestrial engagement discreetly. Finally, the existence of extraterrestrials moves into the phase of overt acceptance. Here, through controlled exposure via media, educational programs and regulated announcements, the presence of extraterrestrial life is acknowledged openly, leading to a reevaluation of their role and rights on Earth.

Strategic communication is critical. Each phase would be designed to gently shift public perception, using tools ranging from entertainment media to scientific disclosures and educational reforms. The process mirrors how society has come to accept once-controversial practices like gambling and marijuana through gradual legal and cultural shifts.

As we have seen with AI, the normalization of extraterrestrials in societal consciousness will likely not be a sudden shift but a gradual acceptance facilitated by strategic disclosures and cultural integration. By examining how we’ve adapted to and accepted AI, we can predict and even shape how humanity will react to and eventually embrace the presence of extraterrestrial beings. This process underscores our capacity for adaptation and acceptance, proving, once more, that the limits of our acceptance are bound only by the expanses of our imagination.

As we stand on the brink of this new frontier, it’s not just about welcoming a new member to the cosmic neighborhood; it’s about redefining who we are in the universe. The day may come when the idea of extraterrestrial life among us shifts from the pages of science fiction to the annals of science fact. When that day arrives, it will not just be a testament to our enduring curiosity but a reflection of our unyielding capacity for growth and acceptance. Remember, the future is not just something that happens — it’s something we build. As with AI, in the cosmos, as in life, the more we embrace the unknown, the more extraordinary our realities will become.

Imagine being the victim of AI-generated pornography circulating on the internet. Or worse, if your child’s image was being used. A bill to prevent AI (artificial intelligence) from being used to make child pornography or pornography using non-consenting adults is now law in Pennsylvania.

At a press conference Monday, Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele praised the law, with Deputy Attorney General Angela  Sperrazza and Sen. Tracy Pennycuick (R-Montgomery), a sponsor.

“We hear a lot about artificial intelligence,” said Pennycuick. “It’s transforming industry, advancing healthcare, improving transportation and even reshaping the way we do business. But with innovation comes risk.”

One of the “darkest and most troubling uses of AI” is “the creation of AI-generated deepfakes.”

“These deepfakes are hyper-realistic,” she said. The photos or videos often depict individuals “in explicit scenes that never occurred.”

Photos from a social media post of a high school yearbook can be “turned into deeply harmful, sexually explicit materials,” said Pennycuick.

And “sexually deepfake images of minors” are increasingly used every day,” she said.

“What’s most alarming is that the children are the prime target,” she said.

Since Congress has not addressed “the dangers of AI,” Pennsylvania officials stepped in to breach the gap.

Pennycuick, chair of the Communications and Technology Committee, introduced the bill, now Act 125 of 2024, to combat the problem. It closes a loophole to prohibit AI-generated child pornography, and AI-generated child pornography using on-consenting adults, she said.

“Law enforcement now has the tools it needs to prosecute individuals who create or share these insidious materials,” said Pennycuick. “The use of AI to harm others, especially our children, will not be tolerated.”

Steele thanked all the members of the legislature who voted for the bill and the governor for signing it.

“It provides a new protection for children and adults alike,” said Steele.

“When the stuff gets released…it’s very, very difficult to recover,” said Steele.  “If it’s out there, it’s out there. The impact of something like this is causing great stress to the targets of those AI-generated materials and their families. We’ve seen that already in the short time that AI’s been around.”

There’s been cases where someone created AI-generated images of someone they know with the intent to harass or harm the other person,” said Steele. “Sometimes they get sexual gratification from this.”

“This past year, we’ve seen incidents where we’ve seen the creation of sexually exploitation materials of individuals who’d never consent to that type of material, let alone [it] being disseminated,” said Steele. “It’s been difficult to talk to victims about not having this tool, about not being able to prosecute on this specific activity because it didn’t fit in with [the statutes].”

“We had a specific case where an older individual had a whole collection of child sexual assault material, and inside these were secreted files of AI-generated sexual assault materials of a very young child he had access to.”

“He’s charged, and we’re proceeding with that prosecution,” said Steele. “But we were not able to charge for these [AI] images.”

But in future cases, they can.

“This is a crime,” he said. “And there are severe consequences for those that are going to engage in this activity.”

“You’re going to be in a boatload of trouble if you’re going down this path,” he said. “Our goal is to hold child predators accountable for their crimes. And this new law removes a substantial obstacle for us to achieve justice for those families, for adult victims, for child victims.”

Sperrazza, who leads the child predator unit, said, “This is a tool we need.”

“It keeps us at the forefront. As technology changes, the way children are exploited will change, so we have to change with it.”

Pennycuick said the bill was a bipartisan effort. Former Sen. Jimmy Dillon (D-Philadelphia) and Sen. Lisa Boscola (D-Lehigh) also sponsored it.

Asked about the number of cases in the state or Montgomery County, officials didn’t know. Sperrazza said a 69-count indictment was just filed against two men in Lancaster County.

Steele said kids, parents, and schools need to understand “that this is a crime and they will be held accountable for it.” He noted the law includes felonies and first-degree misdemeanors.

“This isn’t messing around,” he said.

In crafting the law, Pennycuick said they worked with a lot of groups, including the District Attorney’s Association and the Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

“We had a lot of buy-in from different groups that touch this area,” she said.

Sperrazza said, “It’s punishing the same way you’d punish regular child pornography.”

In August, Lancaster County police launched an investigation into a disturbing case involving 20 high school female students. The perpetrator took these teenage girls’ real pictures and used artificial intelligence (AI) technology to generate nude “deepfake” images and distributed them on the internet. Despite the clear harm caused, the district attorney pointed out a critical problem: a gray area exists in the law that prevents charges from being filed in cases like these.

This incident is far from unique. We are witnessing a troubling rise in AI-generated sexual images of both minors and non-consenting adults. This technology can be used to create photos and videos to depict individuals in explicit scenarios that never occurred with astonishing and nearly indistinguishable accuracy.

Unfortunately, these deepfake images are not explicitly covered by existing state laws, including our child sexual abuse statutes.

Currently, for example, it is not illegal for a friend, colleague, or even a stranger to take photos from someone’s public social media profile, use AI to create explicit content, and then distribute the “deepfakes” online. Shockingly, some websites have even published realistic AI-generated sexual images of children.

As AI technology advances, it offers significant benefits to our daily lives, from healthcare innovations to improving transportation and business operations. But with this progress comes serious risks and unintended consequences. The National Institute of Standards and Technology has already called for federal standards to address the potential misuse of AI. However, Congress has yet to fully address the dangers posed by AI-generated content.

Here in Pennsylvania, as chair of the Senate Communication and Technology Committee, I introduced Senate Bill 1213 to address the alarming rise of AI-generated deepfake sexual images of children and non-consenting adults. Although current state law prohibits the distribution of intimate images without consent, it does not clearly address the use of AI deepfake technology. This loophole leaves many Pennsylvanians vulnerable to a new form of digital abuse, as seen in the recent case in Lancaster County.

The bill also explicitly prohibits the use of AI to generate child sexual abuse material—previously referred to as “child pornography.” With the changes contained in SB 1213, law enforcement will now have the ability to prosecute individuals who generate and disseminate these types of child sexual abuse materials.

Last week, the Pennsylvania legislature (or Pennsylvania General Assembly) passed Senate Bill 1213. For the first time in Pennsylvania’s history, legislation will be presented to the governor to combat the prevalent and highly disturbing “deepfake” images of minors and child pornography generated by artificial intelligence.

This bipartisan effort has garnered widespread support, including from the Pennsylvania Attorney General and district attorneys throughout the commonwealth. We anticipate the governor will sign this critical legislation into law soon.

AI technology has incredible potential for good, but it can also be exploited. Pennsylvania needs strong laws to protect its citizens from those who use this technology to generate sexual images without consent, particularly child sexual abuse materials. With the passage of SB 1213, we are sending a clear message: the insidious use of AI to harm others will not be tolerated in our state.

And most importantly, innocent victims, like the high school girls in Lancaster County, will be able to seek justice.

When Exelon Generation shut down the Three Mile Island (TMI) Nuclear Reactor 1 in 2019, officials said it was too costly to operate. A $500 million Pennsylvania taxpayer-funded bailout proposal went nowhere in the state legislature. Plans were made to eventually tear it down.

Five years later, TMI is back in a big way thanks to Microsoft and artificial intelligence.

Microsoft just signed a 20-year agreement with Constellation Energy – which took over TMI in 2022 – worth $16 billion. It’s expected to add 3,400 jobs to Pennsylvania and bring in more than $3 billion in state and federal taxes.

“This agreement is a major milestone in Microsoft’s efforts to help decarbonize the grid in support of our commitment to become carbon negative,” said Bobby Hollis, VP of Energy, Microsoft.

More importantly, it will add 835 megawatts (MW) of carbon-free energy to the PJM grid. PJM Interconnection operates the regional power grid that serves states across the Midwest and mid-Atlantic region, including Pennsylvania.

PJM’s service area “is about 65 million people and about 21 percent of the U.S. economy. It’s the largest electricity market in the entire world,” Ken Zapinski with Pittsburgh Works Together, a coalition of business and utility executives and union leaders, told DVJournal in a podcast interview.

The facility is expected to be online by 2028.

Constellation CEO Joe Dominguez called TMI one of the “most reliable nuclear plants on the grid” and was happy it would be used again. He said it would become a new economic engine for Pennsylvania and the PJM grid.

For a certain generation of Pennsylvanians, it’s hard to hear the words “safe” and “Three Mile Island” in the same sentence. On March 28, 1979, a cooling malfunction at the Unit 2 reactor caused part of the core to melt, and led to the release of radioactive gases and iodine into the atmosphere. It’s considered the worst nuclear power accident in U.S. history.

While studies have shown its effect on residents and the environment was minimal, the effect on public opinion was enormous. The partial meltdown caused Americans to become wary of nuclear power.

The TMI Nuclear Reactor 1 wasn’t affected by the 1979 meltdown.

The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission will have to approve restarting TMI, and Constellation will need to get the appropriate permits from Pennsylvania.

Gov. Josh Shapiro promised his administration would keep a watchful eye to make sure everything is safe. He said nuclear power will make the grid more reliable and deliver affordable power to the Keystone State.

State Sen. Lynda Schlegel Culver (R-Northumberland) said TMI’s return strengthens Pennsylvania’s status as an energy exporter. Pennsylvania is the second-largest net supplier to energy to other states behind only Texas, according to the federal Energy Information Administration. It’s the second-largest generator of nuclear energy.

Energy executives and advocates have called for the U.S. to tap into the nuclear sector for years. They put the blame on the federal government’s decision to subsidize wind and solar energy, distorting markets and undercutting nuclear power prices.

“There were people screaming, ‘If you’ve set up a system where you want more carbon-free electricity and an existing source, a huge existing source of carbon-free electricity is shutting down because it’s unprofitable, there’s a problem with your regulatory system,’” Zapinski said.

TMI has the opportunity to be a godsend for PJM. Officials said this year they had enough energy to last through the spring of 2026, but they faced an uncertain supply after that. Critics blame the Biden-Harris administration’s emissions policies that forces more coal and natural gas power plants off the grid.

An estimated 24,000 to 58,000 MW of energy will be retired by 2030 without being replaced, due in large part to regulations pushed by the Biden-Harris EPA. At the same time, energy demand has increased by 30 percent – per the North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC). Both NERC and PJM said wind and solar can not be counted on to be constant providers of energy because they’re weather-reliant. Nuclear energy is not.

The huge turnaround for TMI raised complaints from anti-nuclear activists. Eric Epstein with Three Mile Alert said earlier this month he expected taxpayers to eventually foot the bill because there’s not a market for nuclear. “We were told, ‘Let the marketplace decide.’ The market decided, and they decided it’s not nuclear.”

But Zapinski credited the private sector for the push for more nuclear power. He used it as an example of private businesses  realizing where the free market was headed.

“What you see are private sector companies making decisions to keep themselves solvent in a very unstable energy world,” he said.

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2024 may go down as the year Artificial Intelligence (AI) took the world by storm.

The news is exciting but also a little unsettling. In five to seven years, we read AI will be as smart as humans. In 20 years, some say, AI will be able to do anything we can do. These claims are tricky to evaluate, but what’s clear is that AI is advancing faster than most people realize.

The more we interact with AI, the quicker it evolves, learns, and develops. In the past decade, AI has moved from beating humans at Jeopardy to writing songs and tackling advanced coding. The uncanny realism of deepfake videos featuring celebrities like Tom Cruise reminds us that stealing someone’s face isn’t just a plot for Mission: Impossible anymore.

As chairs of the Pennsylvania Senate’s Communications and Technology Committee, we are committed to fostering innovation while protecting Pennsylvanians from disinformation and digital threats, including sexual exploitation. This spring, our legislative agenda includes several bills that carefully address the challenges posed by AI. Our goal is to allow government and the private sector to harness this technology’s full potential in a way that aligns with the public good.

The cornerstone of American Democracy is a citizen’s ability to make their voice heard on Election Day. As AI technology becomes more accessible, there is a growing risk that bad actors will exploit it to create deceptively realistic content that could disrupt the political process.

Already this year, a robocall with a deep-faked voice of President Joe Biden falsely told Democratic voters in the New Hampshire presidential primary not to vote. We all need accurate information to make the best and most informed decisions for our families and communities. A vote cast because of fraudulent information is a vote stolen. To safeguard our constituents and the integrity of Pennsylvania’s elections, we’ve introduced legislation to prohibit the use of AI to fraudulently misrepresent political candidates.

As parents, we were shaken by events that came to light last autumn in Westfield, N.J. The social media app Snapchat was used to circulate AI-generated nude photos of high school students as young as 14. The Westfield case and others like it helped inspire our bill tackling sexual exploitation through the nonconsensual creation of pornographic deepfake images.

In Pennsylvania, sharing intimate images of a person without consent is illegal. However, the law doesn’t clearly address the use of deepfake technology to spread similar, AI-generated images without the subject’s consent. Our legislation, a companion to state Rep. Ryan MacKenzie’s House Bill 1063, will make it clear that the use of these tools to create pornographic images without consent is illegal.

Finally, we’re developing legislation that would require a clear disclosure on all AI-generated material.  With this information, readers and viewers can make informed decisions and protect themselves from misleading content. We clearly identify ourselves at the end of this op-ed. That’s because we believe Pennsylvanians have the right to know who (or what) creates the media they consume.

Some 14 states have adopted resolutions or enacted laws related to AI technology. Pennsylvania must be ready to join them with a thoughtful, commonsense legal framework if we want to manage the growing influence and potential risks of AI in our elections, workplaces, and daily lives.

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