Democrats Introduce Bill Requiring Political Ads to Disclose AI Use
Democrats introduced a bill today (Tuesday) that would require political ads to disclose the use of artificial intelligence (AI).
Democratic congresswoman Yvette D. Clark, who represents New York’s 9th district, introduced the new bill in direct response to a Republican AI-generated attack video on President Joe Biden last week.
“The upcoming 2024 election cycle will be the first time in U.S. history where AI-generated content will be used in political ads by campaigns, parties, and Super PACs,” Clarke says in a press release.
“Unfortunately, our current laws have not kept pace with the rapid development of artificial intelligence technologies,” she says.
“If AI-generated content can manipulate and deceive people on a large scale, it can have devastating consequences for our national security and election security.”
In an interview with The Washington Post, Clarke pointed to the GOP’s recent video as providing impetus for the bill.
The Republican’s video used AI imagery to imagine China invading Taiwan, financial systems crumbling, immigration crises, and crimewaves in San Francisco.
In the YouTube description, it made clear the video was generated from AI. However, Clarke says other organizations may not do the same.
“There will be those who will not want to disclose that it’s AI-generated, and we want to protect against that, particularly when we look at the political season before us,” Clarke tells The Washington Post.
It is no secret that machine learning technology is outpacing government legislation. As it stands currently, there are virtually no laws or legal precedents for generative AI.
As noted by The Hill, last week the Federal Trade Commission, the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission put out a joint statement emphasizing the agencies’ commitment to enforcing laws against discrimination and bias in automated systems.
“I think there are really important uses of AI, but there have to be some rules to the road so that the American people are not deceived or put into harm’s way,” Clarke adds.
Yesterday, PetaPixel reported on the EU’s AI Act that will force AI image generators to disclose any copyrighted photos in the datasets used to train them.
