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A bogus AI-generated attack ad from the Republican National Committee (RNC) offered Congress a glimpse of how the technology could be used in next year’s election cycle. Now the Democrats are preparing their response.
On Tuesday, Representative Yvette Clarke (D-NY) introduced a new bill to require disclosure of AI-generated content in political advertising. Clarke said The Washington Post Tuesday that her bill was a direct response to the RNC ad launched last week. The video came out shortly after President Joe Biden announced his 2024 reelection campaign, depicting a dystopian future in which Biden reinstates the draft to support Ukraine’s war effort and causes China to invade Taiwan if reelected.
“The upcoming 2024 election cycle will mark the first time in U.S. history that AI-generated content has been used in political advertising by campaigns, parties and Super PACs. Unfortunately, our current laws have not kept pace with the rapid development of artificial intelligence technologies,” Clarke said in a statement Tuesday.
“The upcoming 2024 election cycle will mark the first time in U.S. history that AI-generated content will be used in political advertising”
The debate over whether or not to regulate AI and machine learning technology plagued the pre-2020 presidential election. Leading up to the election, a fake video of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pronouncing her words in a drunken double-tongued manner went viral, went viral on social media platforms and spurred it to a handful of congressional hearings. Meta, TikTok, and other major social media companies later banned deepfakes, but lawmakers failed to pass any meaningful regulation as a result of their efforts. Clarke’s REAL Political Advertising Act would apply to still image and video ads, requiring a message at the beginning or end revealing the use of AI-generated content.
With a new election cycle on the horizon, AI-generated and other manipulated video content has only grown rampant online. Over the past year, increased accessibility to and corporate investment in AI technology has spooked legislators, influencing a deluge of new bills and regulatory solutions.
Last month, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) distributed a broad framework to experts that illustrates the Democrats’ approach to AI regulation. The framework proposed new rules requiring AI developers to disclose their data sources, who trained the algorithms, the public and an explanation for how the algorithm arrives at its answers, according to Axios.
In a March interview with The edge, Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) lamented how slow Congress has been to regulate emerging technologies. Speaking about social media’s potential for harm, he said, “I wish we had some rules in place prior to the game.” He continued, “We have an opportunity to do that with AI.”
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