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OpenAI just did something unusual for a tech company: it publicly backed a law that could make its own technology more legally consequential. The company endorsed the DEFIANCE Act on June 24, a bipartisan bill that would create a federal civil cause of action for victims of nonconsensual sexually explicit deepfakes.
That makes OpenAI the first major AI company to proactively support legislation specifically targeting harmful AI-generated intimate imagery.
What the DEFIANCE Act actually does
The bill’s mechanism is straightforward. It would allow victims of nonconsensual intimate deepfakes to sue individuals who knowingly produce, distribute, solicit, or possess such content with the intent to distribute it.
Victims would be able to seek monetary damages, with a reported minimum of $150,000 per incident, along with injunctions to force the removal of the content.
The bill has already cleared a major legislative hurdle, passing the Senate unanimously on January 13, 2026. That was actually its second trip through the upper chamber, having previously passed in 2024 as well. The problem is the House, where the bill is currently stalled.
Sponsorship reads like a deliberate exercise in crossing the aisle. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) lead the Senate side, while Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Laurel Lee (R-FL) champion it in the House. The Problem Solvers Caucus has also thrown its weight behind the effort, and public figures including Paris Hilton have voiced support.
Why OpenAI’s endorsement matters
Generative AI tools have made creating realistic fake intimate imagery disturbingly easy. The victims are disproportionately women and minors, and the harm, reputational, psychological, and professional, is very real.
By endorsing the DEFIANCE Act, OpenAI is essentially saying: yes, this technology creates risks that require legal remedies, and we’re comfortable with victims having the ability to pursue those remedies in court.
What this means for the tech and AI landscape
The DEFIANCE Act is narrowly tailored. It targets nonconsensual intimate imagery specifically, not AI-generated content broadly. That narrow scope is probably why it passed the Senate unanimously twice.
For companies building AI-driven platforms, a federal civil cause of action means more litigation risk, which means more investment in content governance, detection tools, and usage policies.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
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