Research by Professor Clare McGlynn is behind a new law being implemented in England and Wales to criminalise the creation of non-consensual sexual deepfake images.
The Government has announced that the law, which was passed last year, will be brought into force this week following AI chatbot Grok being used to digitally undress women and children. Thousands of these images were then shared on social media.
Professor McGlynn, in Durham Law School, has played a central role in positively shaping public debate over the past few weeks, explaining the legal situation, the harms of deepfake abuse and recommending law and policy reforms.
Her research has been critical to designing the legal responses to the problem of AI generated deepfakes.
As well as criminalising the creation of sexually explicit deepfakes, the new law also prohibits asking others to generate them. This provision was developed together with the expertise of Associate Professor Gemma Davies of the Law School.
Professor McGlynn worked with politicians to draft the legislation, briefing government ministers, civil servants, voluntary groups, and campaigners to ensure it was adopted.
She first recommended this law in April 2024 following a huge rise in the creation and sharing of nude and sexualised deepfake images using AI technology.
In October, Professor McGlynn’s research played a key role in a ground-breaking court case in Australia which centred on sexually explicit deepfake images.
She provided expert evidence that played a vital part in the court’s decision to impose a major financial penalty on a defendant who had posted the images online and initially refused to remove them.
Her research continues to inform global debate, including within the European Union. It is informing policy changes relating to image-based abuse including sharing, soliciting or creating intimate images without consent, such as 'revenge porn', upskirting, deepfakes and downblousing.
More about Professor Clare McGlynn and her research on image-based abuse.
In the past few weeks Professor McGlynn has been quoted by, or written extensively for, media on the problem of AI deepfake images including The New York Times, The Guardian, and The Washington Post.
More about Associate Professor Gemma Davies.
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For information on Durham University’s social media policy contact Lucian J Hudson, Executive Director, Communications & External Relations, on communications.team@durham.ac.uk.
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