Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) said in a recent interview that he will continue to push for regulation of artificial intelligence (AI) in elections.
“Deepfakes are a serious threat to our democracy. If people can no longer trust that the people they’re hearing speak to are really them, our democracy is going to suffer in ways we’ve never seen before,” Schumer said in an interview last week. NBC News“And if people become disgusted by democracy, God knows what will happen.”
With less than 100 days until the November election, Schumer spoke to the outlet about the impact of AI on the electoral process, and said he hopes to introduce further AI legislation in the Senate in the coming months.
His recent push for regulation of emerging technologies in elections comes as billionaire Elon Musk Shared a fake video Vice President Harris used an AI to imitate her voice and spew insults about her campaign and President Biden, who dropped out of the 2024 presidential race last month and has since endorsed VP Harris.
And earlier in the election cycle, robocalls using a fake Biden-like voice urged voters to skip the New Hampshire primary.
AI-generated political ads are also making inroads in the 2024 election: Last year, the Republican National Committee released an entirely AI-generated ad aimed at painting a dystopian future for Biden’s second term, featuring fake but realistic photos of boarded-up storefronts, armored soldiers patrolling the streets, and waves of panic-inducing migrants.
Schumer said in an interview Thursday that the deepfake AI bill had bipartisan support during its committee time and urged Republicans to continue supporting the effort.
“There was bipartisan support in the committee, Sen. [Amy] “Klobuchar has done a good job of doing that. One of them is that they don’t have any AI in their commercials or in their solicitations,” she told the outlet. “The other one is that they at least have disclosures so you can see that they’re using AI.”
“These are American bills, and we will fight because our democracy is at stake. We will do everything in our power to get these bills passed, and I hope that our Republican friends understand, as I said, that we have Republican support,” the Senate Majority Leader said. “This is not about Democrats or Republicans. Our democracy is at stake if these deep fakes become widespread.”
Senate Rules Committee Paid three bills Earlier this year, several bills targeting AI in elections were passed, including the Protecting Elections from Fraudulent AI Act and the Transparency in AI in Elections Act.
The Protecting Elections from Deceptive AI Act would prohibit the use of AI to create deceptive content that falsely portrays federal candidates in political ads in order to influence elections, while the Transparency in AI in Elections Act would require disclosure for ads that contain content generated by AI.
