The recent 7th Circuit opinion permitting in-home possession of AI-generated child sexual abuse material raises many questions regarding the relationship between protected speech and generative AI.

While most people would say CSAM of any child — real or virtual — should be illegal, the decision relies on precedent from the 2002 Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition decision, holding that computer-generated CSAM, possessed in one’s own home, does not violate the First Amendment. But that decision did not contemplate the present realities and may not be applicable to today’s AI-generated CSAM.