A California appellate court recently affirmed a $4 million jury verdict in favor of a police captain after a sexually explicit, AI-generated image resembling her was circulated among her colleagues. In Washington state, a trooper filed suit alleging a supervisor used AI to create and distribute a deepfake video depicting him kissing a co-worker. Both cases made headlines and both were filed under workplace law.
But Bradford Kelley, a shareholder at Littler Mendelson who focuses on AI and employment law, describes these instances in a recent brief. He says HR leaders risk missing the bigger picture if they consider this a cybersecurity issue and move on.
“It’s not just deepfakes,” Kelley told HR Executive in an interview. “If somebody uses a generative AI tool to generate a song that shows they’re romantically interested in a colleague, that’s not necessarily a deepfake issue, but it’s definitely an issue where AI could be weaponized.”
The wave of AI policies HR teams drafted over recent years was largely focused on a different problem set, including protecting confidential data, managing IP risk and ensuring accuracy in AI-assisted work. Many may not have included how to handle an employee using a readily available AI tool to harass, humiliate or intimidate a co-worker.
The distinction matters because the barrier to entry for crafting AI materials is now essentially zero. Producing a harassing song, a romantic story involving...
Footage of a group of women beating a man with slippers has circulated online in Hindu-majority India alongside false claims it showed a Muslim man trying to seduce women into converting to Islam a...