A bill has been introduced by a House Democrat requiring that political campaign ads disclose the use of AI-created imagery.
In line with the proposed legislation, any political communication as part of the election campaign that bears an AI-generated video or image must be accompanied by "a statement that the communication contains such an image or footage." Failure to make such a disclosure would result in being slapped with a penalty equal to the kind stemming from failure to disclose who paid for a campaign ad.
Described as “AI-generated,” the "Beat Biden" video starts with the question "What if the weakest President we've ever had, were re-elected?" It contains images of San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge interspersed with computer-generated shots of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
A robotic narrator offers AI-generated scenarios where a war between China and Taiwan has started, regional banks have collapsed, the flow of illegal immigrants has surged at the US-Mexico border, and the crime rate has escalated dramatically.
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In response to the ad, the Democratic National Committee denounced it as "remarkably bad," saying that Republicans were forced to "make up" images because they "can’t argue with President Biden’s results."
The proposed legislation, by amending the Federal Election Campaign (FEC) Act of 1971, would set out specific regulations as to when political TV and online ads would need to flag use of content-generating AI. Rep. Yvette Clarke, D-NY, claims that such content has the power to "manipulate and deceive people" and can have "devastating consequences for our national security and election security."
The congresswoman proposed that the changes take effect on January 1, 2024.
The bill is not the first attempt by Congress to boost legislative regulation of artificial intelligence, and comes amid growing concern over the lightning-fast strides being made by cutting-edge AI technologies like ChatGPT or Google Bard.