New guidance from China's highest court says civil cases involving deepfakes, cloned voices, and AI recreations of dead people can carry serious legal consequences.
The move adds detail to China's fast-evolving AI rulebook as synthetic media becomes cheaper, more convincing, and easier to distribute.
Here's what to know
According to the South China Morning Post, the Supreme People's Court released a 24-article opinion explaining how judges should resolve AI-related civil disputes by applying existing laws rather than a separate AI statute.
Much of the opinion centers on harm tied to personal identity. The court said rights related to image, voice, and reputation can be violated by using AI to create an identifiable digital likeness without permission, cloning a person's recognizable voice, or circulating sexualized fake imagery.
Framing the rules as a way to "draw clear legal red lines" without undermining innovation, the court also said severe deepfake abuse could escalate beyond civil litigation. That includes scams, defamation, privacy breaches, and obscene content that could trigger criminal liability.
More background
The harms described in the guidance are not theoretical. AI tools can generate realistic fake images, audio, and video quickly and at low cost, making it far easier for bad actors to target ordinary people as well as public figures.
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Beyond deepfakes, the opinion addresses consumer issues including "big-data price discrimination" — algorithms offering different prices or terms to different customers for the same product — as well as AI-generated celebrity impersonations in live-stream sales. If those impersonations amount to fraud, consumers may seek punitive damages.
What's being done?
One concrete step is expanding courts' ability to act before harm spreads further. Victims of sexualized fake content may be able to seek injunctions when delay could cause irreparable damage, and judges may order distribution to stop or require platforms and AI service providers to help limit further harm.
The opinion also sets out how liability can reach AI companies and users. Service providers are not expected to review every prompt or output in advance, but they may still be held liable if they are notified about infringing content and fail to respond. Users who intentionally generate harmful content can also face liability.
Wang Liming, vice-president of the China Law Society and a professor at Renmin University, argued that China is pursuing a path distinct from both Europe and the United States.
"China should avoid the constraints of both models and seek a balance between AI development and security," he wrote, contrasting that stance with stricter European regulation and lighter U.S. regulation.
The court's message centered on the need for speed when synthetic media causes real-world harm: "The traditional approach of seeking redress through litigation after the fact is not conducive to providing timely and effective protection for victims' legitimate rights, making the proper application of personal-rights injunctions particularly important."
Where can I learn more?
China's new guidance arrives as the debate over AI oversight continues to widen. The stories below look at labor rights, misleading political messaging, and warnings from companies and policymakers about harms that can outpace existing safeguards.
• In China, a court ruled it illegal to replace workers with AI to cut costs.
• In California, authorities found campaign emails generated by AI tools while attacking a gas-appliance proposal.
• Anthropic warned its own models could soon improve themselves, prompting calls for a global pause.
The pattern is getting harder to ignore: AI disputes now reach far beyond deepfakes, touching jobs, politics, and basic questions of who is responsible when things go wrong. That helps explain why courts are trying to set clearer rules before the damage spreads.
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