WASHINGTON, DC (June 30, 2025) – The National Center on Sexual Exploitation Law Center issued the following legal analysis pertaining to the compromise language regarding the AI moratorium in the budget reconciliation bill.
“The so-called compromise language regarding the AI moratorium in the budget reconciliation bill currently under Senate consideration may significantly undermine the Supreme Court’s groundbreaking June 27 Paxton decision by subjecting age verification laws (that permit the use of AI to ‘age verify’) to the purview of this new language. The definition of ‘artificial intelligence system’ in the bill means ‘any data system, software, hardware, application, tool, or utility that operates, in whole or in part, using artificial intelligence.’ This is an extremely broad definition and probably includes systems employed by online pornography platforms to age verify users. While HB 1181, the Texas bill challenged in Paxton, does not prescribe one specific method of age verification over another, its provision to use a ‘commercially reasonable’ method for age verification would include using AI to verify age. This means that an online pornography platform that uses AI to verify age would thereby pull HB 1181 within the purview of the compromise provision. There is nothing to preclude this in the proposed language. In short, approving the new five-year ban provisions may cause us to lose the victory obtained at SCOTUS under Paxton.”
NCOSE Law Center filed an Amicus Brief representing 15 Texas State Senators in support of the Texas law.
The NCOSE Law Center has been fighting for justice for survivors who have experienced sex trafficking or abuse and currently represents survivors of sexual exploitation in litigation against X (formerly Twitter), Pornhub, XVideos, and XHamster.
About National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE)
Founded in 1962, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) is the leading national non-profit organization exposing the links between all forms of sexual exploitation such as child sexual abuse, prostitution, sex trafficking and the public health harms of pornography.
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