In Albany County, the school board pitched a new policy Wednesday that would limit students’ ability to make or share deepfakes.
Deepfakes are AI-generated videos or other AI-generated media depicting real people, often doing or saying things they did not actually say or do.
As the technology to make them has become more ubiquitous, deepfakes have been used to alter news photos, push misinformation and generate nonconsensual sexually explicit content, sometimes even involving minors.
“We just have to be very strong in saying, ‘No, we’re not going to do this in our district,’” Superintendent John Goldhardt said during the school board’s most recent meeting.
The proposed policy would prohibit students from making or sharing deepfakes depicting private individuals, like classmates or teachers, but not necessarily public individuals like celebrities or the president.
Chief Human Resources Officer Nathan Cowper said it would also ban all deepfakes depicting sexual activity.
“I would say those are the two main prohibitions of the policy,” he said. “We are always behind in these situations, and so the policy does say that this policy should be reviewed annually.”
School leaders weren’t aware of any other school districts in Wyoming looking into similar policies, but said Albany County should be proactive.
“Deepfakes between students have impacted the mental health and well-being of students, and unfortunately there have been young people across the country who have taken their own lives due to the severity of a deepfake,” Goldhardt said in an email. “In addition, deepfakes can potentially destroy and/or severely harm an educator's professional and personal reputation and credibility, and that is simply unacceptable.”
The move comes as a new state law adds criminal penalties for the making or sharing of nonconsensual sexual deepfakes.
Albany County Schools’ proposal passed unanimously on first reading this week. It will need to pass three readings to take effect.
School leaders say they are developing a more “comprehensive” AI policy that could be adopted next summer.
