Louisiana AI Laws Take Effect Aug. 1 for Deepfakes and Political Ads
Two Louisiana laws taking effect Aug. 1 create new criminal penalties for sexual deepfakes and require disclosures on certain AI-generated political ads.
Two Louisiana laws take effect statewide on August 1, 2026, creating new criminal penalties for some AI-generated sexual images and requiring disclosures on certain political communications that use altered or digitally manipulated AI material.
Act 782 addresses sexual deepfakes, including images depicting minors and unauthorized sexual images of identifiable people. Act 806 applies to certain electioneering communications involving candidates and elected officials subject to recall. The changes affect residents, schools, campaigns, political organizations, voters and media broadcasters.
What Act 782 makes illegal
Act 782 creates or expands several offenses involving AI-generated sexual images. The most serious provision covers knowingly creating or possessing a deepfake depicting a minor engaged in sexual conduct when the person knows the material is a deepfake.
That offense carries five to 20 years at hard labor and a fine of up to $10,000, or both. At least five years of the prison sentence must be served without parole, probation or suspension.
If the offender is an educator and the victim is a student, the law allows an additional two-year sentence, served consecutively, for the unlawful-deepfake offense and for the separate unlawful-dissemination or sale offense.
The law also increases penalties for unlawfully disseminating or selling an AI-generated sexual image of another person. The general penalty is up to one year in prison, a fine of up to $1,000, or both. If the depicted person is under 17, the offense carries up to five years in prison, with at least one year served without parole, probation or suspension.
Act 782 also creates a separate possession offense for an AI-generated video or still image depicting an identifiable person under 17 who is totally nude or undressed in a way that exposes specified body areas, when the person possessing it knows or has reason to know that possession is unauthorized.
Penalties and exceptions
The new possession offense carries up to five years in prison. At least one year must be served without parole, probation or suspension. If the offender is an educator and the victim is a student, an additional two-year consecutive sentence is possible.
Act 782 does not automatically make a person criminally liable merely because an unsolicited image reaches that person. The possession provision does not apply to someone who lacked the specific intent to receive the AI-generated image and did not consent to receiving it.
The statute also excludes specified interactive computer services, email service providers, telecommunications providers and certain information-service or access-software providers when their systems are used by another person to violate the possession law.
The law separately addresses deepfake creation or possession, dissemination or sale, and possession of certain images involving a person under 17. Those offenses should not be treated as one blanket prohibition; the applicable offense will depend on the conduct and the statutory requirements.
What schools must tell students
Act 782 requires the principal of each public school to distribute age- and grade-appropriate information during the first five days of each school year to students in grades six and above. The information must address the crimes and consequences of unlawfully disseminating or selling AI-generated images of another person and unlawfully possessing certain AI-generated images under the new law.
The information may be included in an existing orientation program. Each student’s parent or legal guardian must also receive the information on a written form with a signature line acknowledging receipt and understanding, and the form must be returned to the school.
The Louisiana Department of Education must develop the information and provide it to each public-school governing authority, which then provides it to principals. The requirement also applies to charter schools through the charter-school statutory cross-reference.
What Act 806 changes for political ads
Act 806 requires a clear and understandable disclosure when a covered electioneering communication portrays a candidate or an elected official subject to recall using AI-created, altered or digitally manipulated material.
The disclosure is required when the material would falsely appear to a reasonable observer to be an authentic record of the candidate’s or official’s actual speech or conduct, or would falsely appear to replace another person’s likeness with that candidate’s or official’s likeness.
Covered electioneering communications include printed, digital and broadcast messages that expressly advocate for or against a candidate, a recall, a proposition or a question submitted to voters. The definition also includes a communication for which the only reasonable conclusion is that it seeks a vote for or against a specific candidate, recall, proposition or question in a specific election.
The law applies to any person who makes or causes such a communication to be made, including candidates, political action committees and other political organizations. The required disclosure must state that artificial intelligence was used.
Penalty and limited broadcaster exemption
Under the enrolled text of Act 806, a violation can carry a maximum fine of $2,000, up to two years in prison, or both, when it is committed with intent to injure the reputation of a candidate or elected official subject to recall or otherwise deceive a voter.
That figure matters because recent secondary reporting has described a different maximum fine. The enrolled statutory text is the controlling source for the law, so this article uses the $2,000 maximum and two-year maximum prison term.
Act 806 also includes a limited exemption for a media entity that broadcasts a paid political announcement, advertisement or electioneering communication when the broadcaster had no input in or control over it. The exemption does not mean media outlets are free from every obligation involving political advertising; it applies only in the circumstances specified in the statute.
What residents should watch for
Starting August 1, voters may see clear AI disclosures on political communications that meet the law’s definition of electioneering communication and use AI material that appears to be an authentic record or substitutes one person’s likeness for a candidate’s or recall-subject official’s likeness.
A disclosure is not required under this provision for every AI-generated political statement, parody or political communication. The communication must fall within the statutory electioneering definition and meet the law’s conditions concerning the appearance of authenticity or likeness replacement.
Residents should avoid creating, possessing, distributing or selling unauthorized sexual images involving identifiable people, particularly images depicting anyone under 17. The law distinguishes between intentional conduct and unsolicited receipt, but sharing or selling material can raise separate legal issues.
Both Acts 782 and 806 are signed laws, not pending proposals. Their statewide effective date is August 1, 2026. Schools will need to carry out the student-information requirement at the start of each school year, while campaigns and political organizations using covered AI material will need to build the disclosure requirement into their communications.
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