A federal appeals court ruled that the First Amendment protects an individual’s right to privately possess images or videos of child sexual abuse created using AI — if the material does not depict a real person and remains in the home. The court relied on Supreme Court precedents Stanley v. Georgia (1969), which established protections for the private possession of obscene material in the home, and Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition (2002), which ruled that certain virtual depictions involving no real children are protected by the First Amendment. The defendant in the case, Steven Anderegg, was charged with producing and distributing obscene AI-generated images and sending them to a minor over Instagram. The possession charge was dismissed under the Supreme Court precedents. The judge panel in the case has asked the Supreme Court to “reconsider legal precedents that predate advances in AI.” (washingtonpost.com/technolog…)