Utah Deepfake Laws: AI Images, Voice Cloning & Penalties (2026)

Utah has enacted some of the country's more comprehensive deepfake statutes. The state criminalizes non-consensual AI-generated intimate images of adults, requires disclosure labels on AI synthetic media in political advertising, and treats artificially generated child sexual abuse material as a standalone felony. Since May 6, 2026, Utah's Abuse of Personal Identity Act also gives every individual a replication right in their own voice and audiovisual appearance that is enforceable against AI-generated simulations.

Is It Illegal to Make a Deepfake of Someone in Utah?

The answer depends on the category of content. Utah law now reaches all three of the major deepfake buckets: sexual deepfakes of adults and AI-generated child sexual abuse material are crimes, unauthorized AI replicas of a person's voice or appearance are a civil wrong under the Abuse of Personal Identity Act, and election deepfakes trigger disclosure duties rather than a criminal prohibition.

Creating a deepfake is not itself a crime in Utah in every context. The offense under 76-5b-205 is distributing a counterfeit intimate image that the actor created or provided without the depicted person's knowledge and consent, and distributing it without that person's consent. A purely private creation that is never shared falls outside the statute's reach, though it could still give rise to civil claims such as intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Using an AI tool does not put a person outside the criminal law. Utah Code 76-2-107 provides that an actor may be found guilty of an offense if the actor commits it with the aid of a generative artificial intelligence, or intentionally prompts or otherwise causes a generative artificial intelligence to commit it.

Satire and commentary are not explicitly exempted by Utah statute, but the First Amendment provides some protection for clearly labeled parody that is not distributed as though it depicts a real event, and 76-5b-205 itself carves out a counterfeit intimate image that is related to a matter of public concern or protected by the First Amendment or by Article I, Sections 1 and 15 of the Utah Constitution. Utah's election-deepfake statute covers only paid political advertising, not organic social media posts.

Sexual and Intimate Deepfakes

Utah Code 76-5b-205 is the primary tool against non-consensual intimate deepfakes of adults. As amended by SB 66, effective May 1, 2024, the definition of "counterfeit intimate image" expressly includes any visual depiction that has been "edited, manipulated, generated, or altered" by electronic, mechanical, or other means "to depict the likeness of an identifiable individual" and that purports to, or is made to appear to, depict that individual's intimate body parts or that individual engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

The offense has four elements. The actor must knowingly or intentionally distribute the image. The actor must know or reasonably should know that it would cause a reasonable person to suffer emotional or physical distress or harm. The actor must not have received the depicted individual's consent to distribute it. And the image itself must have been "created or provided by the actor without the knowledge and consent of the depicted individual," which narrows the offense to an actor who made or supplied the fake. A first offense is a class A misdemeanor. A second or subsequent conviction arising from a separate criminal episode is a third-degree felony.

When the depicted person is a child, an actor who is 18 years old or older commits aggravated unlawful distribution of a counterfeit intimate image, a third degree felony (second degree felony on a second or subsequent conviction from a separate criminal episode) under the same statute.

The same "counterfeit intimate image" definition carries into Utah Code 76-5b-204, sexual extortion. Threatening to distribute a deepfaked intimate image of someone, or declining a request to delete or take one down, in order to coerce sexual conduct or to obtain a thing of value, is sexual extortion. For an adult actor the base offense is a third degree felony, with higher grades for aggravated offenses and for child and vulnerable-adult victims.

AI-generated child sexual abuse material. Utah Code 76-5b-207 and 76-5b-208, enacted in the 2026 General Session, make artificially generated material its own offense rather than folding it into the existing CSAM sections. Utah Code 76-5b-103(1) defines "apparent child sexual abuse material" as a visual depiction "generated or created through the use of artificial intelligence or generative artificial intelligence, or any other means," of a minor engaging in, observing, or being used for sexually explicit conduct, where the depicted minor "has prepubescent features" or "appears to be a minor under 12 years old" and "is sufficiently similar to a real minor such that it would lead a reasonable person viewing the depiction to conclude that the depiction is of a real minor." Possessing, viewing, or accessing such material with intent to view it is a second-degree felony under 76-5b-207. Distributing or producing it is a first-degree felony under 76-5b-208, reduced to a second-degree felony if the actor was under 18 at the time. Proof that the depicted minor is a real minor who exists is not required.

Election and Political Deepfakes

Utah Code 20A-11-1104, enacted by SB 131 and effective May 1, 2024, requires disclosure labels on paid political communications that contain AI synthetic media. The law applies to audio or video content that is substantially produced by generative AI and is paid for by a candidate committee, political action committee, political party, or any person using a political contribution to influence a Utah election or primary.

The specific disclosure format depends on the medium. For audio-only political ads, the words "Contains content generated by AI" must be spoken audibly at the beginning and end of the communication. For visual content, legible text identifying the AI-generated element must be displayed throughout the portion of the ad containing synthetic media; different labels apply for image-only, video-only visual, audio-within-video, and combined formats.

The law also requires publishers to embed tamper-evident digital content provenance metadata identifying the original creator, any subsequent editors, and any use of generative AI. The civil penalty is up to $1,000 per violation, and the statute creates a private right of action, meaning individual candidates or campaigns (not just regulators) can sue.

Utah's law does not criminalize election deepfakes outright. It focuses on transparency rather than prohibition. Courts in other states have struck down broader election-deepfake statutes on First Amendment grounds: California's AB 2839 was enjoined in August 2025, so Utah's disclosure-only approach may be more durable.

AI Voice Cloning and Digital Likeness

Utah's answer to voice cloning is civil rather than criminal, and it arrived on May 6, 2026, when amendments to the Abuse of Personal Identity Act (Utah Code Title 45, Chapter 3) took effect.

Utah Code 45-3-2(8) now defines "personal identity" to include an individual's picture, portrait, visual or video likeness, voice, and audiovisual appearance, and expressly extends that definition to "any simulation, reproduction, or artificial recreation" of those attributes created through generative artificial intelligence, computer animation, digital manipulation, or any other technological means. Subsection (11) defines "voice" as "a computer-generated sound in a medium that is readily identifiable and attributable to a particular individual, regardless of whether the sound contains the actual voice of the individual." That last clause is what makes a synthetic soundalike actionable even though no recording of the real person was used.

Utah Code 45-3-3(1) gives each individual the exclusive right to consent to the use of that personal identity. The right "includes a replication right, in which only the individual or right holder may consent to the use of the individual's personal identity in a simulation, reproduction, or artificial recreation." It is licensable but not assignable during the individual's life, does not expire until 70 years after death, is descendible to executors, heirs, licensees, and devisees, and for an individual who died before May 6, 2026 it applies retroactively for up to 70 years before that date. That is the same architecture as Tennessee's Ensuring Likeness Voice and Image Security (ELVIS) Act, which extended that state's right of publicity to AI voice simulations effective July 1, 2024.

Personal identity is abused under 45-3-3(2) in three ways: using content containing it for advertising, fundraising, solicitation of donations, or purchases without consent; publishing, performing, distributing, or transmitting it with actual knowledge that the use was not authorized; or knowingly distributing, selling, or licensing any technology, software, or tool whose intended primary purpose is the unauthorized creation or modification of content that includes an individual's personal identity. That third prong reaches tool makers, not only the people who use them.

The right has real limits. Under 45-3-3(5), a publication is not an abuse if it is accompanied by "a clear and conspicuous disclosure that the content is a simulation or artificial recreation of the individual," so a visible label can defeat a claim under the publication prong. Section 45-3-3(4) separately exempts lawfully obtained personal data or publicly available information used to preview or advertise a product where the use does not express or imply an endorsement.

Enforcement runs through two civil sections. Utah Code 45-3-4 lets the individual, or a right holder, sue the person who caused the publication of the advertisement or content. Utah Code 45-3-5 lets them sue the publisher, on proof that the content on its face would lead a reasonable person to conclude that consent was unlikely and that the publisher did not take reasonable steps to ensure consent was obtained. Both authorize injunctive relief, damages alleged and proved, exemplary damages, and reasonable attorney fees and costs. Utah also keeps a narrow criminal backstop: under Utah Code 76-12-304, knowingly or intentionally causing publication of an advertisement that uses an individual's personal identity to express or imply an endorsement, without that person's consent, is a class B misdemeanor.

Defamation law reaches synthetic content as well. Utah Code 45-2-3.5 provides that it is not a defense to a claim of libel or slander that the communication was created through generative artificial intelligence, computer animation, digital manipulation, or any other technological means, or that it uses simulated or recreated content rather than actual recordings or images of an individual.

SB 149 (2024) created Utah's Office of AI Policy and imposed disclosure requirements when AI interacts with consumers. It is not the source of the likeness right, which lives in Title 45, Chapter 3.

Federal Law That Applies in Utah

Two federal laws now give Utah residents additional protection regardless of whether a state charge is available.

The TAKE IT DOWN Act (Public Law 119-12, signed May 19, 2025) is the first federal law to specifically criminalize the non-consensual publication of intimate images of adults and minors, expressly including AI-generated "digital forgeries." Violators face up to two years in federal prison (three years if the victim is a minor). Separately, the law imposes a 48-hour removal obligation on online platforms: once a victim submits a notice, covered platforms must take down the image within 48 hours. The FTC enforces compliance. This obligation applies in addition to, not instead of, Utah's own criminal statute.

The FCC's AI-robocall ruling (FCC 24-17, Feb. 2024) clarified that AI-generated voices in automated calls are "artificial" under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. AI voice-clone robocalls to phones without prior express consent are therefore illegal nationwide, including in Utah. The FCC issued a $6 million fine (finalized September 2024) in the wake of the fake-Biden primary robocall incident that prompted the ruling.

Federal CSAM law (18 U.S.C. 2256(8)(B)) already covers computer-generated images indistinguishable from real minors, and it applies alongside Utah's own apparent-CSAM offenses.

The DEFIANCE Act (S.1837, 119th Congress) and the NO FAKES Act (S.4591, 119th Congress) are proposed federal bills, not current law. The DEFIANCE Act would create a federal civil cause of action for sexual deepfake victims; the NO FAKES Act would create a federal right of publicity covering AI voice and likeness replicas. The DEFIANCE Act passed the Senate by unanimous consent on January 13, 2026 and was received in the House the same day, where it remains pending. The NO FAKES Act was reported out of the Senate Judiciary Committee and placed on the Senate legislative calendar. Neither had become law as of August 2026, so neither provides a remedy victims can use today.

What Victims Can Do

A person whose image has been used in a non-consensual intimate deepfake in Utah should report the offense to local law enforcement under Utah Code 76-5b-205 and request that officers note the AI-generated nature of the content for charging purposes.

For online platforms, the TAKE IT DOWN Act (eff. May 19, 2025) gives victims a direct path: submit a removal notice to the platform, which must act within 48 hours. The FTC oversees compliance and accepts complaints at ftc.gov. Major platforms including Meta, Google, and Snapchat have their own reporting portals for non-consensual intimate images that can be used simultaneously.

Civil remedies in Utah are no longer limited to general tort claims. Where a deepfake uses a recognizable person's voice or audiovisual appearance without consent, Utah Code 45-3-4 and 45-3-5 allow a civil action against both the person who caused the publication and the publisher, with injunctive relief, damages alleged and proved, exemplary damages, and reasonable attorney fees and costs. SB 131's separate private right of action applies specifically to election advertising. Utah Code 45-2-3.5 forecloses the "an AI generated it" defense to a libel or slander claim. Utah Code Title 13, Chapter 72b, enacted in the 2026 General Session, goes further and imposes civil liability on AI generation services that distribute a counterfeit intimate image without a compliant consent system, and on covered platforms that fail to remove one within 48 hours of notice, with actual damages including emotional distress, punitive damages for willful, reckless, or malicious violations, and attorney fees, subject to statutory safe harbors and a heightened pleading standard. Federal courts have allowed IIED and false-light claims in some deepfake cases, but those require demonstrating severe emotional distress and a factual nexus.

Victims should preserve all evidence: screenshots, URLs, timestamps, any messages from the distributor before requesting removal, since the content often disappears quickly once a notice is sent.

Penalties at a Glance

Disclaimer: This page provides general legal information about Utah deepfake and AI image laws, not legal advice. Laws in this area are evolving rapidly; Utah has passed multiple statutes since 2024 and federal law changed significantly in 2025. If you have been harmed by a deepfake or face charges related to one, consult a licensed Utah attorney for advice specific to your situation.

Sources

See the citations below for the primary sources used in this article.

Deepfake & AI Voice Cloning Laws by State

Utah AI Laws and Regulation

Utah Data Privacy Laws

Utah Recording Laws

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