A 2023 Pew Research survey found that the majority of Americans say the government and tech companies should take steps to restrict false information online.
Last year, the FEC voted to review a petition asking it to regulate ads that manipulate content to make something that did not happen look real.
As artificial intelligence shows up in more and more areas of daily life, it begs the question: How will AI technology and elections mix?
At the intersection of AI tech and misinformation sit deepfakes: Videos or other digital content that might seem real, but are actually created or manipulated using computer learning.
Scottsdale Republican Alexander Kolodin is sponsoring a bill that he says would help protect candidates from disparaging deepfakes.
“It's something that could really cause a lot of disruption if it happens prior to an election,” Kolodin said.
A convincing enough deepfake, said Kolodin, could swing an election. His solution? Allowing candidates to get a court declaration saying, "This is a deepfake."
“The candidate who had the deepfake made of them now has something they can use to counter that fake depiction of them and say, ‘Hey, media, look, we have a court order. The court order says it's not really me. So stop reporting that it's me,’” he said.
Candidates would have to prove the “digital impersonation” was published without their consent, and the intended audience wouldn’t be able to tell it was fake.
Taking the content down wouldn’t be in the judge’s power, but Kolodin said it’s an intentionally light first step.
"When you're dealing with something that's as fraught with First Amendment implications as something like this, you really want to start very, very small,'' Kolodin said.
The bill would require a judge to rule within two court days whether the content in question was real.
A slightly different path would also open up for victims of deepfake abuse that are not candidates or public figures, whose image was used in content depicting them in an intimate or sexually compromising position. After a hearing, they would be able to pursue an injunction ordering that the content be removed wherever it was posted and be able to sue for damages.
