A California appellate court recently affirmed a jury verdict awarding $4 million to a police captain who was subjected to a hostile work environment after a sexually explicit, AI-generated image resembling her was widely circulated in the workplace, holding that the dissemination of such fabricated content constituted unlawful harassment under California law. In a separate case, a Washington State trooper filed suit alleging that a supervisor used AI to create and circulate a deepfake video of him intimately kissing a coworker; the officer is suing his employer for discrimination, retaliation, and invasion of privacy. These high-profile incidents highlight a disturbing trend: AI-generated content—especially deepfakes—is emerging as a powerful new form of workplace harassment.
As AI tools become more accessible and ubiquitous in the workplace, employers should prepare for the possibility that deepfake content could be weaponized to humiliate, retaliate against, or intimidate colleagues, creating hostile environments that challenge current harassment policies and legal frameworks. Recent reports show deepfake-related fraud attempts surged by over 3,000% in 2023, with the number of deepfake files skyrocketing from 500,000 in 2023 to an estimated 8 million by 2025.1 In fact, the first quarter of 2025 alone saw 179 major incidents—already surpassing the total for all of 2024—underscoring the accelerating risk of AI misuse.2
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission...
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